Day 3

While Amy and the Berea mobile faithfully paced behind Steele Hinton, ’76 as he bravely took on the last few miles of his 30-mile bike ride from Cynthiana to Brooksville, I arrived in Bracken county ready to take on a task that I can’t say I’ve ever attempted before. Amy and I were scheduled to teach an adult Sunday school class to the congregation of Brooksville Christian Church in Bracken county, which is the birthplace of John G. Fee. I should probably tell you that Amy has spent the last couple of days trying to calm my nervousness about the task at hand, reassuring me that we weren’t really “teaching” but merely sharing the story of Berea with a community that once nurtured and developed the very founder of our alma mater. For those of you who know assistant to the president and Berea alumna, Amy Harmon, you also know that she has an amazing, soothing quality about her and although I never taught a Sunday school class in my life, she made the experience seem effortless and ultimately it was rewarding for everyone.

I can’t tell you how comforting it is - when you are 100 miles from home – to see a familiar face walk through the door. In this case not one, but three familiar faces joined us in Brooksville and Augusta today - alumna, Rhenda Mills, ’64 traveled all the way from Frankfort with her aunt to join us for the day’s activities. Director of Public Relations, Tim Jordan, ’77 and News Manager, Julie Sowell also joined in on the fun. Fee historian, Caroline Miller of the Bracken County Historical Society treated us not only to an incredible feast at the Parkview Inn, but also shared with us her amazing wealth of knowledge about the life and work of John G. Fee.

The day ended with a small ceremony at the Bracken County Historical Society where we presented a copy of the Great Commitments and a signed copy of Shannon Wilson’s new history book to the group. We were joined by the Deans, who are the current owners of the original Fee homestead as well as three CURRENT Berea students! Seth, Roxanne, and Danielle who were on spring break, apparently read about Berea coming through town in the local paper and decided to come by to just to say hello.

After we accidentally took a much longer, but more scenic route to our last destination of the day - Maysville, Amy and I finally arrived at our pre-booked hotel, fully looking forward to taking off our shoes and having a quiet, reflective evening to ourselves. But after three unsolicited approaches in the parking lot by 3 different men asking (1) our room number; (2) to carry our bags for us; and (3) “how we were doing tonight”, we decided that maybe this hotel was not quite the safest place for single women like us to be calling it a night. Luckily, there was another hotel down the road that had terror-free, vacant accommodations for us and we did indeed call it night. After all, we have an hour of sleep to make up after having to turn our clocks forward this morning.

Signing off from Maysville, KY,
~ Mae