Publisher - September 2026
You may delay, but time will not.
— Benjamin Franklin —
IYou run into a friend you haven’t seen in a while at the grocery store. You’ve known each other for years and talk for nearly 15 minutes in the produce section without missing a beat. The brief conversation feels good, familiar. Both of you have been so busy, you’ve just lost touch. When you part, you both say, “Let’s get lunch soon.” Which is answered with affirmative enthusiasm, “I’ll call you!” You both have full intentions to make it happen, but it never does.
How often have we all lived out this scenario? How many friendship moments are we missing because we let opportunities like these slip by the wayside? I’ll tell you a story that happened to me recently.
I have to begin the story by telling you how much I love to read, which is the main reason I started Pink Magazine Book Club. Anyway, I am also in a personal book club—The 2nd Thursday Book Club. This club has been in existence for 13 years, and I was invited to be a part of it about three years ago. I tease that someone has to move away or die in order to get in—as there are 12 of us, and it runs like a well-oiled machine thanks to our organizer, Tamela Maxim.
Years ago, I assigned writer Michele Roldan-Shaw to drive to Estill, S.C. about an hour away, to meet Lawton Clarke O’Cain. The story was to cover the Estill Book Club that began in 1913. At the time, the Club was celebrating 105 years, and Lawton was the matriarch of the group, having been a member since 1962—64 years! The story was fabulous, exuding Southern tradition and fancy customs of days gone by that none of us realized were still in play just up the road. Pink readers got lost in the lore of reading how the book club was rooted in history and had not changed much in all those years. Like my personal book club, the Estill Book Club consists of only 12 ladies. The number is set so each person has a month to choose the book and host the meeting. My month is May, and I know the 2nd Thursday in May from now until I die, it is my turn to host.
Tamela and her mother, Annelore Harrell, both Blufftonians, became friends with Lawton years ago and have had the great pleasure of attending a few Estill Book Club meetings as guests. Because of the story in Pink, I became intrigued and wanted to meet Lawton ever since. I don’t know what triggered it, but this past June, Tamela and I started talking about Lawton, and like so many do, insisted we must go to her antebellum home in Estill to visit.
But Tamela did something many don’t. She followed up two weeks later asking me when I could go. This was on a Thursday, and in unlikely fashion, I said, “Let’s go on Tuesday if she is available.”
Later that day, I received another text from Tamela: “We are tentatively on for visiting Lawton in Estill on Tuesday. She’s going to call me back once she’s found her calendar. I told Lawton we will bring food and have lunch with her. Lawton is so excited!” I was, too!
When Tuesday came, Tamela and I set off for our visit, and in the hour it took to get there, we enchantingly arrived around the year 1939, at least that’s what it felt like. What a special time we had. Being invited to Mrs. O’Cain’s grand formal dining room with seating for 14 and having a three-hour lunch filled with chatter of mutual admiration, historic tradition, and so many stories it was magical. Of course, we talked about books, and Lawton even brought out some old journals filled with the minutes from her book club. We read a few entries of long-ago meetings—what book was being read, what they ate, and what the weather and times were like. Remember, this book club made it through the Great Depression, WWII, and everything since—and each hostess still takes time to set a beautiful table with the good china and special floral centerpieces.
When we arrived, Lawton, now 87 years old, was in a wheelchair and using oxygen. We talked about her next doctor’s visit and what she hoped he would do to help her get well. None of this stopped Lawton, she was a marvelous host and we laughed, learned, and truly loved our visit. When we were leaving, she asked us to come into her bedroom and took us to the window overlooking her beautiful backyard. She said, “I get to look at this every day. It’s my favorite place. Isn’t it beautiful?”
The three of us stared out the window together at the wild menagerie she had created over the years. This was her childhood home, so she lived there most of her life. The yard was alive with thriving container gardens, bluebird houses, and lush blooming shrubs.
Two weeks later to the day, Lawton went home to be with the Lord.
The moral of this story is to make the phone call, send the text, meet for lunch…do it sooner rather than later. Fill your calendar with people who count, moments that last, and experiences that never fade.
What can I chalk up my inexplicable sense of urgency in meeting Lawton? Coincidence, divine intervention, luck? I didn’t know her state of health.
I believe it was divine intervention. My life was enriched meeting Lawton. Yes, I ignored work the day I spent a total of six hours going to meet a one-of-a-kind woman. And I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Who do you need to connect with today? Do it now.
Think Pink,
Elizabeth Millen
Click here to read the Pink story about the Estill Book Club