I sure do miss Robert. He loved his family and tried to help all of us. I love him with my whole heart and am so grateful that he was part of my life.
I have a genuine advantage being the youngest of such a large family -- it gave me a "card file" on life. I can look at my own relatives for parallels about how to handle just about any situation that life presents to me. I can anticipate and can learn based on my memories of my relatives' experiences. When I meet someone, generally I can peg them based on my relatives ("..reminds me of fill in the blank with one of my kin").
When I told you about my sister Edna, my one-word summary of her was "a romantic". And it was a failed philosophy -- the bottom line was the only person she could count on was herself. The one-word summary anyone who knew Robert would immediately give of him is "Christian". He was devout. His faith consumed his life. He lived it. He was a Baptist preacher, and he did his honest best to practice what he preached. Robert constantly "talked the talk and walked the walk". Unlike poor Edna's romanticism, Robert's faith did not fail him. It was so moving to see and hear the many men from the Sunday School Class he had taught who traveled all the way from Cumming, Georgia to Greenville, South Carolina to attend his graveside services last May (1998). Robert was a friend, example and inspiration to many people.
This story about Robert was printed in the Shores of Lanier Baptist Church bulletin on May 22, 1994:
"We would like to honor one of our Sunday School teachers by telling you a little about his life. He is ROBERT LEE WOOD, born to Green Berry and Ida Day Wood on December 17, 1912.
"Bob was the 6th of 9 children (5 girls and 4 boys). His father was a school teacher and farmer. All his family accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. Bob accepted Jesus in 1924 at the age of 12. He was baptized in the First Baptist Church of Hapeville by Rev. B.J.W. Graham. He was active in Sunday School, BYPU and later BTU. His father and mother had a great influence on his life. They held daily Bible reading, and they attended Sunday School and Church every Sunday. His father taught Men's Bible Class and was Chairman of the Board of Deacons.
"Bob's father died Oct. 7, 1921, and his mother died on April 15, 1922. Before his mother died she asked his grandmother to pray the Lord to take care of her children. The prayer was answered. He and two brothers were placed in the Georgia Baptist Orphanage. He stayed there for 10 years. Georgia Baptist had Children's Home Day each Fall. In 1927 Bob and two other boys went to the First Baptist Church in Gainesville where the 3 of them spoke to the Georgia Baptist Convention which was in session. He graduated from high school, attended Georgia Tech and Mercer University. In 1933, after looking for a job for about nine months, he was employed by a grocery chain (Colonial Stores). He was employed by them in various positions for 42 years, working in Georgia and South Carolina. He took early retirement in 1976.
"In 1958 Bob joined the First Baptist Church of East Point. The Baptist had a mission program to grow 30,000 churches by 1964. Center Park Church had Sunday School but no preaching services. Bob offered, and was accepted, to become minister at the mission. During his stay there 17 people joined the Baptist Church through this mission. He was there from Jan. 4, 1959 into 1962. Later this mission became Center Park Baptist Church.
"Bob is a Sunday School teacher and Deacon in our church. He is married to Sue Bailey Wood, who was also raised in Georgia Baptist Children's Home. Sue is also very active in our church."
--But this leaves out a few of the most important moments of his life, his first marriage, how he lost his only child and almost lost his wife, and then how, after many years, he did lose the love of his life. And it doesn't mention his satisfaction in being able to build his own home with his own hands --bricklaying, wiring, plumbing, everything. He built his own home on Beecliff Drive in Columbia, South Carolina and again on the Jodeco Road in Jonesboro, Georgia. Robert seemed to savor living in a mess of "construction in progress". Maybe it confirmed his competence and fed his dreams, to always be in a state of "becoming".
When Robert went to work with Colonial Stores and was transferred to Greenville, he became best friends with a co-worker who took him to church and introduced him to his family. That is how Robert met Carrie Lee, the love of his life, the cousin of his co-worker and dear friend. Carrie Lee was one of three sisters, all three of whom were extremely sweet, gentle, and very good humored. In your whole life you will never meet anyone nicer than Carrie Lee. Robert and Carrie Lee married in that church after a six months courtship.
The honeymoon was a short one because Robert took his two teenage nieces Frances and Dixie (Edna's daughters) into his and Carrie Lee's small Greenville apartment to give the girls a needed home.
Robert and Carrie Lee looked forward to having children of their own. In 1947 their daughter Jan Eugenia was born after an extremely difficult delivery. Immediately after the birth, the doctor had to perform a hysterectomy on Carrie Lee. Jan was a "blue baby" whose heart had not developed properly and could not adequately oxygenate her blood. Jan only lived a short while. Carrie Lee was not able to manage all of the trauma of the difficult birth, hysterectomy, and death of her only child. She withdrew to an extreme extent, becoming non communicative and not even eating. She required hospitalization. When Robert was required to move her from the local medical hospital, he mortgaged their home and placed Carrie into a private psychiatric hospital in Stone Mountain, Georgia. The diagnosis she was given was "catatonic schizophrenia".
The heavy costs of medical care caused Robert to go bankrupt. He lost his home. This was the worst time in his life. He wanted to reclaim his wife's health, and he truly wanted to pay his debts.
Since Robert was a resident of South Carolina, Carrie Lee was transferred to South Carolina State Hospital on Bull Street in Columbia. Finally, when she was not getting better, Carrie Lee's doctor approached Robert with the request to perform a lobotomy, brain surgery than would sever connections to the frontal cortex, which would leave Carrie Lee as a very calm "robot". Robert adamantly refused and removed her from State Hospital. He was desperate, didn't know what to do with/for her, and was ready to try anything, so he took her to a doctor of homeopathy, natural medicine. Before his eyes, that doctor "broke" the spell that bound her -- he cracked Carrie Lee's neck like a chiropractor, and she responded, "Ohhhhh!!" She began responding again. Back with Robert and him hovering over her, she recovered during the series of homeopathic treatments.
For the rest of their marriage, Robert and Carrie Lee remained the most devoted couple imaginable. Carrie Lee let him rule the roost. What Robert said was law. What a hard adjustment for him many years later when Carrie died of heart problems. He had been the center of her world, and she his.
The years between Carrie Lee's recovery and her final illness were very good years. I remember her as laughing and joking. She worked as a secretary for State Farm Insurance both in Five Points in Columbia and then in the Atlanta area for State Farm Agent Mr. Germany, who was a valued friend. Robert and Carrie Lee were parents to a series of foster children. For a while, they were house parents to teenagers removed from their parents and placed in a special facility in Atlanta. Robert and Carrie Lee were always very active in church and had many friends through their church. They were close to their families, who visited them often, particularly Harris and Avis who also lived near Atlanta.
When Carrie Lee died, Robert realized that he did not want to be alone. Not only did he cherish the companionship of a wife, but also he was so very deaf that he believed it was unsafe for him the live alone. When G.B. and Helen were staying with Robert during Carrie Lee's final illness, the hospital called the house for Robert to come to her bedside, BUT no one could wake Robert up. Unfortunately, Robert had locked his bedroom door. G.B. had to literally get tools and take the door down to wake Robert to get him to the hospital. Robert quickly recognized that he needed a wife to hear for him as a means of normal adaption in light of his serious handicap.
What a sad and challenging time for Robert immediately after Carrie Lee's death. He began courting a widow in the Baptist Church that he attended in Jonesboro. She told him that it was too soon after his wife's death, for him to wait a while; so he scratched her off the list of "potentials" and moved on. He encountered a man he had grown up with at the Georgia Baptist Orphanage in Hapeville. He learned that this man's little sister, Sue, also raised at that orphanage, was now a widow; so Robert decided this lady was a very likely candidate in his "wife hunt". A date was arranged. Robert liked what he saw, recognizing the lady was "solid", family-centered and active in church, so Robert became determined to insinuate himself into her life despite any hesitation she evidenced. Robert went so far as to open a joint checking account in both their names, placing $10,000 of his money into it, which stunned Sue. He wanted to make the point that he was not after her money; that he was secure on his own (but showing no finesse in making this point, which he certainly could have done better in other ways). He bought her a huge diamond ring. He didn't want to wait to marry her. He was overwhelming. So she caved in and married him.
Marry in haste, regret in leisure. After his six months successful "campaign to marry again", then Robert got to know his new wife (after the marriage, not during the courtship). He found out that he was going to play "second fiddle" to her children. He learned quickly that Sue was not the submissive "yes dear" wife that Carrie Lee had been. Robert didn't like it. He became unhappy.
He gave serious thought to divorce. He went on a trip by himself while Sue was visiting her daughter in Florida. He visited Frances in Titusville and talked the whole misery over with her, trying to figure out what he should do. What he ended up doing was making his adjustment to the new marriage. He made his compromise with not being Supreme Ruler any more. Sue took good care of him and was a good wife to him.
Toward the end, Robert developed Parkinson's disease. His last Christmas, he spent the day trying to telephone Carrie Lee. His last year had some lucid periods and had many periods of not being in this reality. He had finally had to be placed in a local nursing home because Sue could no longer manage him. They had to tie him to the bed at night to keep him from wandering and falling. It was time for him to go to something better. Pneumonia took him out. He was in the nursing home for only two weeks before it ended.
What a wonderful man he had been. He chose well how to spend his
time on this earth. He gave love and help to many people.