Visit with Nancy & Ben

We spent this afternoon & evening visiting with Mike's cousin Nancy and her husband Ben.

Nancy & Ben took us to the Lexington Cemetery to see the grave marker of Mike's great granduncle, Richard J. Foley. He was a Sergeant in the Union Army in Company A, 6th KY Cavalry. He was captured & sent to Andersonville & Cahaba prisons. Toward the end of the Civil War the prisoners were sent to Vicksburg in preparation to being returned home. In April 1865 Richard & 1800-2000 prisoners boarded the steamship Sultana & headed north up the Mississippi River. On April 27 south of Memphis the boilers ruptured & the Sultana sank. Richard was among the dead & his body was never found. The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War were instrumental in having the grave marker done & held a memorial service with military honors in September. Nancy was the coordinator with them & read copies of letters Richard had written home while waiting in Vicksburg. We had hoped to attend, but weren't able. For more information on the Sultana disaster, go to The Sultana: Death on the Dark River.

We then returned to Nancy & Ben's house to visit & catch up on each other's news. We enjoyed meeting their three cats which they didn't have the last time we saw Nancy & Ben. We had had three cats before we started full-timing; they are now living with our son in Big Pine Key, FL. We swapped cat stories all the way through dinner & dessert.