A Tribute to Adam Messer
My brother-in-law,
Adam Messer, died almost three weeks short of his 50th birthday of
lung cancer on January 10, 2008 in Mobile, AL. To the family, Adam
was a brother, husband, father and became a true brother of mine.
When I first met Adam 25 years ago, he was sporting a beard that
reminded me of Dan Fogelberg. Through his illness, Adam provided me
the opportunity to be my
brother's keeper in May 2005 and traveling companion
through the South in May & June 2006.
This is the 3rd
verse from The Repentant Robert
Johnson, where Adam and I visited Robert's grave in
Greenwood, MS:
I'm sitting in the church parking lot
while my Brother-in-Law
leaves the Crossroader
a ceremonial dime,
and I wait.
I'm sitting in the Little Mt Zion
Missionary
Baptist Church
parking lot
while my brother
Adam leaves
the Mississippi Crossroader
the customary coin,
and I wait.
And I think to myself,
"Was Robert 'train[ed] up as a
child
in the way'* of
the Lord
and joined Him
on Tuesday, August 16th,
1938?"
I'm sitting in the church parking lot
while my brother leaves
our
brother Crossroader
a
ceremonial dime,
and I wait.
*Proverbs 22:6
My Additional 4th
Verse to Steve Goodman's
"City of New Orleans" © 1970
By T. Wright
Riding north on the City of
New
Orleans,
out of
Jackson
to ease my brother's pain.
Greenwood,
Mississippi, my destination.
He's coming down to meet me at the train.
Out the window now, I can see
what Arlo Guthrie sang to me,
what touched Steve Goodman
deep in his soul:
landscape goes rushing by,
sun hangs low in the Delta sky;
though I've never been here,
I feel I'm coming home.
Jefferson, MD © 2006
3 July 2006
Based on 5/23 –
6/7/06 trip to
Mississippi
