Blue Star Chronicles

Don Baird

I have been blessed with a very large family. I have a ton of brothers and sisters, inlaws, nieces, nephews and cousins. I never really realized until recent years what a gift that has been. I have noticed that it has its pros and cons. Over the years I have had a number of friends who either were only children or had very small families. I have noticed that they take much more effort with their friendships than I do. Its not that I don’t value friends, I certainly do. But those friends with smaller families call me more than I call them. They plan lunches more often than I do. Not too long ago I asked one of those friends of mine why she goes to so much trouble to arrange get togethers with friends. She said she doesn’t have any family so she makes her own family with her friends.

My cousin, Don Baird, was one of those people. He was an only child and never had any children of his own. Over the years he became another one of our siblings. My mother always made sure he was invited to whatever family gathering we had and over the years he came more often until finally, he was just one of us. I don’t know if he felt that way, but I did and I believe my siblings did as well. He was just another one of us. When you have 50 or so people at every family gathering it doesn’t seem odd to add a few more.

One of my earliest memories is of the pride my grandmother took in Don’s beautiful voice. She made him sing at every family gathering. That was a huge family as well and most of the people at those early gatherings are gone. His beautiful voice worked well for him as a radio personality.

When I was a child I was proud of my cousin Don. He was a radio personality in town. I could tell people that was my cousin and they knew who he was. He never acted like a celebrity and he was really a moderate local celebrity, but to a little girl that was something I was proud of. In later years he worked for the Atlanta Journal Constitution and then for CNN until he retired. Don always took the time to send cards, call and remember people. He always asked about my children and remembered everyone’s names and what they were doing.

My son called from Germany earlier tonight. He had gotten the email about Don’s death and was upset about it. He had connected with Don. He said that when he got out of boot camp he had been at a family gathering and Don talked to him like he was an adult. He said he didn’t feel like an adult at the time and it made him feel good that Don was so open with him. He said Don told good stories. Don did tell good stories and he had a lot of them. He had lived an interesting life.

Years ago when Don’s ex-wife became ill and was dying, he took her in and took care of her even though they were divorced. He married a wonderful woman a few years ago who was quite a bit younger than him. They seemed crazy about each other. She got sick one December and was dead in January. It was so sudden and so shocking that it was hard for any of us to wrap our minds around. She had been an only child and her mother was alone now. Don has continued to look after her mother since then. I found myself thinking about how hard this must be for her mother to have lost Don now. He took care of her as if she was his own mother and now she really doesn’t have anyone else. He had only been married to his current wife a couple of years. She and her children became Don’s family and looked after him in this final illness.

Don loved Atlanta. He had been actively involved in the Civil Rights movement of the 60s and had covered most of the important events that impacted Atlanta over the years he was in journalism. He liked country music lyrics. He would find fun ones and pass them along. He would write some and pass them along. He wrote songs, some getting recorded by the likes of Willie Nelson. He talked about a book he was writing about Cabbagetown, a neighborhood in Atlanta.

I don’t know where this post is going. Just random thoughts, I suppose. Yesterday the trees in our yard were bare. Today I noticed buds were suddenly bursting from the limbs. I thought that Don would have liked to have seen the spring. I like to think that Don is with loved ones who have been gone so very long.