Dee Ann Edwards

Dee Ann Edwards was born on Nov. 19, 1960, to William and Arline "Cissie" Edwards.

Dee Ann, 10, fourth grade, 1970-71.

Dee Ann, sixth grade, 1972.

Dee Ann during a 1978 visit to her Uncle Bill and Aunt Alverna Miller's Minnesota home. With her were mom Cissie Edwards, dad Bill Edwards, cousin Mary Catherine (Cathy) Miller, Aunt Alverna Sprick Miller and Aunt Norma Martin Cashion.

Dee Ann was radiant as maid of honor for her friend Donna Blackburn during Donna's June 1988 wedding to Bill McHenry. In this photo taken by friend Dee Ann's friend Tony Dean, she posed with proud parents Cissie and Bill Edwards

Dee Ann during a visit to Montpelier, James Madison's home.

Dee Ann now lives and works in Raleigh, N.C.

It was a joy to visit with Dee Ann during my November 2011 trip to Winston-Salem. She's an awesome woman, cousin and friend!

Dee Ann wrote and offered this wonderful reverie at her church, Edenton Street United Methodist in Raleigh, N.C., on Christmas Eve 2011:

The original theme for this devotional was family Christmas traditions.  One slight problem -- my family didn’t have one.  But I grew up in a unique setting -- my father was raised and later worked and lived (with my family in tow) at the Methodist Children’s Home in Winston-Salem.  It is one of The Home’s traditions I’d like to share.

Each year The Home would light a Christmas Tree.  Not just any tree but a 70-foot-tall tree!  As anyone who has ever tried to string lights can imagine, stringing a 70-foot tree would be quite an endeavor. The groundskeeper, with the aid of the older boys, would climb via ladders and limbs along the long tree trunk to hang the lights in columns.

Later, staff members and hundreds of children would circle the tree and a once dark, often misty night would become filled with large bright colors of red, yellow, orange, green and blue.  And the once quiet night would become filled with voices singing. 

Christmas came alive for the Home on that night. Not by materialism or gift giving -- especially since gifts were often not all that abundant at The Home.  But by the remembrance of Christ being born as symbolized not only by the five-pointed lighted star at the top of the tree but more importantly by what was at the bottom of that tree.  There stood a family -- one that, through The Home, Christ had created.  A family, related only by caring and need, who not only told the true meaning of Christmas in the carols they sang but by the lives they led.  

But the Christmas spirit carried on beyond that family.  Thousands would drive by each year to gaze upon the lighted tree.  And while enjoying the beauty, the spirit of Christ would come over many of the cars’ occupants. Some would offer their homes for the children to visit during the holiday. And some would drop off gifts.  And Santa (who looked an awful lot like my dad under that suit) would deliver these gifts along with those from sponsors. 

Though a Christmas tree is not particularly Christian in its history, this tree was, and still is, to me a reminder of what Christ is about.  The old spruce tree still sits at the top of the hill at the Home’s entrance and is lit every year.  Though it looks quite a bit worse for wear and those who gather around it have changed- for me, that tree is still the same- a beacon for the Children’s Home -- a place that takes Christ’s message seriously and lives it out not just at Christmas but every day of the year