Fielding Life’s Curve Balls

By Bill Crane

Though admittedly, I have led a somewhat blessed life and have so much to be grateful for each day, I was not unhappy to say goodbye to 2022.

We lost our mother and grandmother/great-grandmother, Lynn Crane, and witnessed other close friends and family suffer similar losses due to age and mortality, long Covid, or other ailments. The business had an incredible year, and I got to suffer through an interesting 15 minutes of fame, departing from a part-time gig that I really enjoyed. Health challenges came to many in my immediate circle, including my first-born daughter, Barclay Carson, as well as her twin Mighty Mites, and their household, which seemingly faced down nearly every viral infection that vaccinated toddlers might expect.

And yet, through almost all that, with only the occasional sighs of fatigue, Barclay soldiered on through it all with a smile and warm heart. She reminded me again, as I am sharing with you today, the great importance of attitude and gratitude in surmounting life’s numerous challenges.

We all have acquaintances, friends, and family who have real trouble fielding life’s curve balls. -Some sink into despair, depression, addiction, and worse. It is also incumbent upon each of us to be

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GFWC Lilburn Woman’s Club Celebrates 50 Years

By Tana Poncsak

The GFWC Lilburn Woman’s Club celebrated 50 years with a 50th Anniversary Gala in February at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Reynolds Hall. Past presidents and anyone who has been involved with the club in the last 50 years were invited to the gala. Susan Allred, president of the Lilburn Woman’s Club, said they had at least seventy people in attendance of the celebration that included a Master of Ceremonies and a presentation of the club’s history.

“I look back at these ladies and I think, wow, they’re so inspiring.

It’s fun to look back at the history. We’ve been learning so much digging into the archives and seeing what the women before us accomplished. It’s exciting and fun.”

The club of about 60 members has a motto, “Community concerns.” The members care about serving the community and living the volunteer spirit.

“We, as a club, care about the community,” she said. “A member may see a need in the community, or someone may bring one to our attention, and we see if we can address it. We have different groups – what we call programs that focus on different areas.”

The different areas include Arts and Culture, Civic Engagement and Outreach, Education and Libraries, and more.

The club supports a number of projects throughout the year, including scholarships and their Dictionary Project, where every Lilburn public school third grader receives a dictionary.

“We’re proud of it,” Allred said of the Dictionary Project. “The kids love it. We go into the schools and present the dictionaries to the students”

The books are pretty comprehensive, so the club members take the time to go through them and explain how to use them, and then the teachers use them with their curriculum. In addition, Lilburn eight graders receive Pocket Constitutions compliments of the Lilburn Woman’s Club.

Lilburn Daze is held in the fall, and with more than 100 vendors this past year, it’s the club’s biggest fundraiser of the year. So big,

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