It seems at the end of the year, especially from the time I developed cancer in 2010, I always feel blessed I have gotten to live through another year.

It amazes me how much one forgets what took place from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 each year until a replay is put on TV or in the newspaper.

As I have aged, I become more aware of and saddened by the classmates I went to school with who have passed on. It makes me me even more thankful for each day I am given. Our class of 1966 has lost quite a few this year. The class itself has lost about a third of its members.

Another thing that gets my attention are the celebrities who have passed. Some I thought were invincible at one time in my life. Doris Day was one of those people. She never seemed to age for years and I can still hear the sound of her voice. I remember watching most all of movies she was in at the Trimble theatre in Mount Sterling. I thought she was beautiful and could sing like a bird. She lived to be 97.

Some of the other stars who passed this year I realized were so close to my age or were my age. Some were younger and I am reminded of the statement, “death has no age.”

Then this past week our county lost a wonderful and special man of God, the Rev. Cova Duvall. Even though he had not been feeling well for some time and I knew his age was such that most people do not get to live to, I was saddened by his death.

Bro. Duvall was so loved throughout the Boone’s Creek Baptist Association and especially at the two churches he pastored, Corinth Baptist Church and Macedonia Baptist Church.

I do not believe Boone’s Creek Baptist Camp would have been finished without the hard work of Bro. Duvall. He was a great man.

Our world could stand more preachers like Bro. Duvall, those who are not afraid to preach about hell. He never cared whose toes he stepped on. You knew you had been in church when you left one of his sermons.

In 2019 we all lost opportunities to make our world better; I am sure of this. There are times when we should have spoken up and other times when we should have been silent.

When I look back on 2019, I am aware of some of my goals I did not accomplish. I had planned to lose at least 20 pounds. That goal did not get realized, but I do weigh less than I did this time last year.

I planned to write a series of children’s books and that also did not get realized, but I did get it started. Hopefully another year will see it completed and sent to the publishers.

I did not accomplish all my goals, but I have made some improvements, which means I am working on it. I do not think you ever get everything you want to  done. Though I am disappointed, I know I tried.

Looking ahead to 2020, I have set myself up for some work since I was given a box full of Willoughby history at a reunion. I have made a vow to update our family history by adding the new children born, new marriages added and also the passing and dates of the passing updated.

I need some prayers on this project since it was last updated in 1990. I can’t help but think if I don’t do this who will?

It was done before by Allen and Norma Jo Willoughby and I appreciated their efforts so very much. They gave me a guideline to go by.

Hopefully, someone else will continue this later when the new booklet becomes outdated.

I am looking forward to 2020.

I am hoping we will not have another year where Congress is consumed with an impeachment process.

Hopefully our country will work together in 2020. We are all Americans no matter the way we vote.

We are blessed to live in this country. Every country looks to the United States but I wonder what they have thought about the us this year.

I pray we get back to the principles on which our forefathers founded our country.

Let us all strive to make the end of 2019 good and 2020 even better by being our best selves.

Sue Staton is a Clark County native who grew up in the Kiddville area. She is a wife, mother and grandmother who is active in her church, First United Methodist Church, and her homemakers group, Towne and Country Homemakers.