The Loss of a Very Dear Friend

NEVA BLAIR CAMPBELL

I met Neva when we worked at the Montgomery Advertiser in 1962, I believe. She was working for the editor, Grover Hall, and I was working for Arch McKay and Bob Hugger.

Neva was so full of life. She loved to water ski, bowl, dance, swim and fish; therefore, when she was hit with MS some 23 years ago, it was so hard for all of us to see.

When I moved back to Montgomery in 1984 because of my father’s terminal illness, I called Neva. We had dinner a couple of times and then she told me she had someone she wanted me to meet. I told her that I had no room on my plate for a relationship at the time and she told me, “this man is the brother of the person I’m dating. He has been a widower for 13 months and I think it would be good for both of you to meet each other.” So, I met Jack Weldon on March 4, 1984 and we were married May 25, 1984. Jack died on April 15, 1998—six weeks shy of our 14th anniversary.

So, Neva and I have had quite a history together. I continued to see her after she was ill. Jack and I used to get her and bring her to the house to watch the Alabama-Auburn games. It wasn’t fair to me: they were both Bama fans and I felt outnumbered, but we always had a good time.

Over the years, her friends at ALFA, Isobel Riggs, and I would get together for every birthday, Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving. I took pictures to memorialize all these events for the past 20 some-odd years. She knew that she could count on her brother Cooper and his wife Mildred, Linda and Richard Holmes, Jan and Jim Gibby, Becky Duncan, Sandy and Alan Wallace, Melanie Puckett, Carol Gargus--and before his death last March 24th--Charles Davis. We tried in every way to be there for her and this past Saturday we had her “early” birthday party. She was 65 on April 1st.

Her voice had weakened and we weren’t sure if she could really see us, so each of us would get close to her so that we could hear what she was trying to tell us. I asked her if she knew who I was and, after a few moments, she said, “Carole Weldon.”

So, while we have all lost a dear friend, we all rejoice that our God is a merciful God. And I pray that for all of us who have made Neva “our” mission these many years that we will find someone else to minister to in the same way. Neva was God’s gift to us; I think we all have grown more spiritually in our relationship with Neva Blair Campbell. And my biggest thrill yesterday was the realization that Neva now has her legs and I just know she is dancing with the angels.