Dinner guests
(click image for
larger view) On Tuesday, July 8, 2008 a dinner hosted by Shoney's Company and St. Cecelia's Academy was attended by twenty-six guests, including former NC&Stl railroad engineer Brownie Spicer.
The dinner was held in the historic White House at
St. Cecilia's Academy. In 1918 the White House was home
to the Warner family. Dutchman's Curve was in their
"back yard". As we gathered in the main dining room
and looked out the large windows,
we pondered the tragedy that unfolded
on the morning of July 9, 1918.

After hearing the collision, the household was probably
stunned by the chaos that erupted on their property.
Dazed and injured people knocking on the door.
Rescue workers requiring water, ice and blankets.
The curious swarming everywhere.
Was a make-shift hospital set up in the great room?
How many people from the house ran to the site?

As I looked around the room at members of the Bates, Farris,
Nolans and Timmons families I thought of their relatives
dying so close to the big house. Did family members
and friends pass by the White House looking for lost loved ones?

As we shared our stories over dinner I experienced
a quiet moment of oneness with the past, and a deep and
humbling knowledge, that by some unusual twist of fate, we were all selected to come together

and participate in a preordained act of remembrance.

My mom, Nan Cross introduces herself

Sister Catherine Marie, David Ewing, Douglas Bates III, Molly Bates, and Jane Coats