11-23-2021
Greetings and blessings go out to our families, friends and enemies (we forgive
them, too) as the 2021 holiday season commences. The past two years have been
harrowing for all of us in multiple ways, We've all been touched by the
pandemic, grieving for those loved ones we lost, while celebrating life with
the survivors.
Libby and I will share our Thanksgiving in the Lake C.I. prison visiting park,
Clermont, Florida, trying to decide what we will eat from the meager selection
of sandwiches in the canteen. I am thankful just to be together with my wife.
When I first came to prison at Union C.I., "The Rock," Raiford, in
1980, our families were allowed to bring in home-cooked meals to visits as long
as the food was in Tupperware containers and passed through the metal detector.
No handguns or hand grenades allowed in the potato salad!
My father and mother, Eugene and Lucille Norman, would make the hours-long trek
from Tampa to North Florida every two or three weeks, and my mother insisted on
getting up hours earlier to prepare a feast of home cooking for her eldest son.
She always cooked much more food than we could possibly eat, fully intending to
share it with hungry prisoners and their less fortunate loved ones. Feed the
hungry. We made a lot of grateful friends.
The last Thanksgiving we shared before the prison banned bringing in food, my
mother planned another one of her holiday feasts. My father struggled to carry
in the biggest Tupperware container I'd ever seen, barely holding the roasted
bird that could have been a small ostrich, it was so big. My mother carried a
large box filled with all the traditional Thanksgiving dishes: cranberry sauce,
dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, candied yams, salad, rolls,
and pumpkin pies. She'd been up all the night before, cooking, assisted by my
sister-in-law, Sandy Norman, my brother Dan's wife.
It was a wonderful occasion, even if we shared it inside prison. A number of
children and families were treated and blessed by my parents' generosity.
The authorities posted a memo months later on, calling a halt to the family
visit food from home, claiming it was to stop the flow of contraband.
That was a lie. The real reason was that visiting park canteen food sales
suffered because of the family meals brought in the V.P. Cut out the visitor
food, increase canteen sales.
I am thankful for the many blessings bestowed on us, despite the circumstances,
and pray that one day we will share our meal together in freedom.
God bless you. Peace, joy and love...
Charlie and Libby Norman
