A Wonderful Lunch

A Wonderful Lunch
1/26/2008


Left to right back row, Donald Mecham, Burnice Mecham, Ray Sammons,
Front row: Janice Mecham, Valora Mecham, Phyllis Sammons

On Saturday the 26th the Mechams drove two hours from Phoenix to Tucson and the six of us sat in the Cracker Barrel for two hours eating lunch and catching up on the past few years and getting to know Janice, Donald’s new wife. This is the first time all six of us have been together. They are fun people.
The two men on the left are Phyllis’s last two uncles: Donald, on the left is six years younger than Burnise in the middle.

Phyllis’s biological mother, Sarah Mecham, died in 1938 when Phyllis was born. Sarah was one of 13 children and these two men are the youngest of the family and the last of the boys. They have one sister still living, Clara 98 years old. Clara was two years older than Sarah who was born in 1911 and they went through nurses training together.
Burnise and Valora live in Preston, ID and they drove down to Gilbert, AZ to visit Donald and his new wife of nine months (his first wife died). Donald and Janice carried on like a couple of teenagers that were just married. They are very young at heart! They have nine grandchildren between them and 24 great grand children. I asked Janice for the birth date of each and admitted she couldn’t do that but it was Burnise that suggested she could have given me any date because I wouldn’t know the difference.
We’ve been honored over the years that Burnise and Valora have gone out of their way to keep track of us and keep us up to date on the Mecham family.
Burnise told us Felix (Phyllis’ father) was his idle. He always wanted to be like Felix and he loved to hear him sing. He also honored Bessie, Phyllis’ step mother, he called her a wonderful woman and we agreed with that.
If all goes as planned Burnise and Valora will come to Cody this summer and spend some time fishing at the Ranch and then if all goes well we will attend the Mecham reunion in Utah in the last.
Burnise told the story (Burinse always has a story) of a man being interviewed by a church official. The clergyman asked, “If you had two ranches would you give one of them to the church?” The man nodded that he would, “If you had two huge homes would you give one of them to the church?” Again he nodded assent, “If you had two Cadillacs would you give one of them to the church?” The man looked and the clergyman and said, “No!” Puzzled the clergyman asked, “Why?” The man looked him in the eye and said, “Because I have two Cadillacs!”