By LORETTA FULTON Even seeing it coming didn’t soften the impact of the closing of Connecting Caring Communities for people deeply committed to it. Dec. 31, 2020, marked the end of the neighborhood improvement initiative that got its start in 2001 at Hardin-Simmons University and gained nonprofit status in 2005. CCC was the brainchild of Linda Carleton, who was dean
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Editor’s Note: The following column first was published at dougmendenhall.com and is reposted here with permission. By DOUG MENDENHALL Early last May, I wrote about the abduction of one of our two frilly, raspberry-colored dianthus plants from just outside the picket fence. It was tiny but beautiful, and I mourned its kidnapping. I wondered if the hole left in the
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By TERRY CAGLE Are you feeling a little thrown for a loop? Today, I’ve already heard COVID-19 compared to a hurricane, a tornado, and a perfect storm. Others feel like sand is shifting beneath their feet. Things are changing rapidly. We are in unpredictable times. Many people are feeling helpless, isolated, and anxious. At the same time, so many are
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By TERRY CAGLE I really like my neighborhood. I feel very blessed to live just north of Hardin-Simmons on Hickory Street. I love the fourth Monday of each month when we have a “Neighborhood Dinner” at our house. It’s always a great time as neighbors come and bring something to go with the burgers or taco stack-ups or whatever my
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By TERRY CAGLE On November 14, my wonderful mother-in-law passed away. After an intense but mercifully short struggle with lung cancer, she quietly left this broken world and entered the eternal kingdom of God. Her “not-yet” became her “forever now.” She passed right after my wife, her sister Cecile and sister-in-law Diane finished the chorus to her favorite hymn, “It
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By LORETTA FULTON The Young Leaders of Abilene looked at the piles and piles of boxes that needed to be flattened for recycling, understanding that was their job for the morning. And they didn’t complain. They are leaders-in-training and learned from mentors that leaders don’t complain about the job before them. They jump in and get it done, serving as
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By TERRY CAGLE I grew up in Abilene. I lived here the first 23 years of my life except for 18 months in Sacramento, California, when I was around 4. I don’t remember much about Sacramento; I do remember Abilene. Many of these memories involve the 900 block of Fannin, just down the street from Abilene High. My world was
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By TERRY CAGLE Back in the fall of 1995, I attended my 20th high school reunion for the Abilene High class of ’75. Since many of us were in town, the church we attended decided to have a “youth group reunion” on the Sunday of the reunion weekend. Since I was the only “pastor” of the group, I was asked
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By LORETTA FULTON Terry Cagle already had worked in two jobs with the intials CCC, so it was only natural that he would be attracted to the role of executive director of Connecting Caring Communities in Abilene. His previous CCC jobs were with Christian Campus Center at Angelo State University and as a minister at Christ Community Church in Arlington.
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Spirit Of Abilene 