Needing Our Thoughts & Prayers

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6 Comments

Comment by Buck P Creacy on September 11, 2008 at 5:27pm

Having recently been the benefactor of all the blessings PS could muster around me. I want to pray for others too.

Comment by Lois Sprengnether Keel (LoiS) on August 24, 2008 at 4:35pm

A storytelling friend requests that we please pray for her son, Chris, & his family to make changes needed to give stability for the children. The marriage is being held by a thread. Another child is due while the family's sinking financially & emotionally. (Electricity was turned off after owing $2,000, most of it from winter heating.) There is no employment for either parent & their parenting skills still need a lot of developing. If the marriage breaks up, custody of the children may not work out well.

The family is 3 doors down from this storyteller, their grandmother, but it's tough on her knowing things are going so badly. Chris has gone through the resources in his area before this, so it does sound pretty bleak, but if there might be some he missed or ruled out, that needs to be found, too.

Comment by Mimi Rockwell on July 8, 2008 at 11:17pm

Doc McConnell, according to the latest posting on www.caringbridge.org by his daughter, Hannah, seems to be improving rapidly. Hannah says he is planning a workshop to be given at the NSN Conference and hopes to do "something" at the National Festival in Jonesborough in October. He must be a strong man! Mimi

Comment by Pam Holcomb on July 4, 2008 at 9:07am

Mimi:

Thanks for the report on Doc. I love Doc. He was the first professional storyteller I ever saw. He came to Lincoln Memorial Univ. in the 70's while I was a student there. Then this past fall at the Kentucky Storytelling Association Conference I was able to sit down and talk to him and tell him this. I got to visit with him again in Feb. at the National Youth Storytelling Showcase in Pigeon Forge. He is such a wonderful, giving, kind man. Please keep me and others updated on his condition.

Pam

Comment by Mimi Rockwell on July 4, 2008 at 12:05am

P.S. I forgot to add the address of a website where you can receive updates on Doc McConnell's progress: www.caringbridge.org. Click on "More ways to visit," then type in docmcconnell (lower case) on the page that comes up. Mimi

Comment by Mimi Rockwell on July 4, 2008 at 12:00am

I'd like to add Doc McConnell to the list of those in the storytelling community who need support for their struggle with health problems. Doc was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma a few months ago and is receiving chemotherapy now. Doc lives in Rogersville, Tennessee and was recently chosen as the first Storyteller Laureate of the state of Tennessee. He has been a humorist and storyteller of folktales and original stories all of his adult life, and I daresay he started telling tales as a schoolboy. He was one of the first tellers to appear at the founding of the storytelling revival of 1974 when Jimmy Neal Smith produced a small festival in the village of Jonesborough, TN. Doc was instrumental in forming the Tennessee Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling (TAPPS), now known as the Tennessee Storytelling Association, in the late '70's. He has been featured multiple times at the National Storytelling Festival. His Old Time Medicine Show performed annually at the October festival in front of the International Storytelling Center, complete with copper bracelets and snake oil, is a festival favorite and tradition. Please send healing thoughts to Doc, his wife Guerry, and his family. Mimi Rockwell