By Julia Tillman
February always makes us think of Valentine’s Day and the ones we love. Of all the kinds of love, family love is the basis of it all. Family love is of God, who created man so that He could have a family of His own. We are blessed to have the families we are born into and the ones we join. I love the family that I joined through marriage, but my story of family love is about the one I was born into.
I came from humble beginnings in a large family as the twelfth of sixteen children. There was always plenty of love in our home. My father and mother were hard workers tending to their small farm, which consisted of vegetables, chickens, cows etc. We all worked hard, but my parents still showed us many examples of family love. My mom showed us love when it was cold at night by heating up bottles of hot water, wrapping them, and putting them in our beds. For Christmas, she would make us Christmas boxes of apples, oranges, raisins, and pecans in a shoebox. On Fridays, my Dad would show us love by always buying peanuts and parching them in the stove. We would have peanuts and RC Cola. It was such a treat! After working all day in the fields, my Dad would often take the young boys out hunting at night. I have countless childhood memories of being shown family love.
As an adult, my thoughts of family love center around the annual family reunions of my mother’s family held late in July. It has been held in Atlanta, Georgia where my grandfather, Henry Echols and my aunt and uncles lived, as well as down in the country at Watkins Mills Spring in Oglethorpe, Georgia. We have even traveled to other states such as New Jersey, the Carolinas and Tennessee. traveling by charter buses, RV’S, trains, planes and caravans. Even as we lose older members of the family, the Echols Family Reunion has continued to be a tradition of family love for over 120 years. Our motto is “a family that prays together stays together. It is like Christmas vacation when we meet up with 300 to 500 or more of our family members, a truly happy time. The love for family that God has placed in our hearts, we share with one another.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, the Echols Family Reunion was canceled for the first time. The family was devastated, and some wanted it to happen anyway, but because of the love we have for family we did not come together. Thanks to the assistance of technology, however, we were able to meet with a virtual family reunion. It was not the same, but because we love each other, we will continue to share our family love in whatever ways we can.
JULIA TILLMAN has been the church secretary for Freewill Holiness Church in Daytona Beach since 2013. She is the wife of the administrative pastor, Levester Tillman, for 25 years. Julia and her husband live in Daytona Beach and have five adult daughters.