OUR STORY

VICTORIA DENISE LEACH - WILLIAM JACKSON PRATER

Page 44

She didn’t go to college until five years after she finished high school. At Mercer we learned that not only was she smart but almost a genius. She made the Dean’s List every quarter and was a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. She finished four years of college in three. She obtained a degree in business.

She met George Prater at a wedding reception for a fraternity brother of Michael and George’s, Ed Olivia. The reception was held at The Sydney Lanier Cottage. It happened to be on December the Fifth, Vickie’s birthday and Ed and his wife surprised her with a birthday cake. Somehow they had never met over the years until that night.

They went together for a while and then married. The marriage was held at Swift Creek Methodist Church in Macon. She moved to Clayton, Georgia where they bought some land and built a house. The large house is close to Tiger, Georgia and has a great view of Tiger Mountain.

Their only child, mine and Francine’s first grandson, William Jackson Prater was born in 1991 and has lived in that house all his life as of this writing.

William Jackson Prater

William is our first grandson. He was born on April 27th, 1991 in Gainesville, Georgia. Francine and I were both there. A few minutes after he was born the nurse brought him out to see us. George, his father, and Francine and I were all standing in a semicircle in front of him . He looked directly at Francine, then at me and then at his father, moving his eyes deliberately each time. I know a baby is not supposed to be able to do that, but we all saw him do it.

After a day or so in the hospital he was home in Tiger, Georgia where Vickie had turned the big walk-in closet in their bedroom into a nursery. For the next four months we must have made twenty or more trips to see him. After Anthony was born in August we cut down on the number of trips but still came at least every two weeks for a number of years.

Space will not let me tell all my grandson stories but I will include some of my favorite memories. At Christmas in 1993 he was opening his gifts when some of them turned out to be clothes. He thought we were playing a cruel joke on him. Christmas presents were supposed to be toys. He got very mad and cried. It was several years before he got any more clothes gifts. By then he had learned to smile and pretend he liked them.