Holly Palmer Rhodes

 

Rhodes, Holly Palmer.

She was loved deeply by her family and friends. She passed away on November 11, 2012 at Grady Memorial Hospital with her husband Will by her side after suffering a severe injury in a fall at home. As always Holly writes about her life better than anyone else could. We share with you below some of her self-reflections.  

Holly p. rhodes

Atlanta, Georgia

World Enough and time

Now that my nest is empty, long latent gifts seek expression. 

Education

Lingate Swim Club, In retrospect, everything I ever needed to know

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Bachelor of Arts in English and Religion, 1982

Emory University, Candler School of Theology Master of Theological Studies, 1999, Magna Cum Laude

Songs of innocence

Played school with an imaginary class of children.  I populated my class with children with monosyllabic Anglo-Saxon surnames—Smith, Jones, etc.  It was a different time. Set up an employment agency in my nightstand drawer with cast off IBM computer cards and a lending library in my basement. A prodigy of organization. Was a friend to Corrine and Cordia Bonney, the shabby, rail thin poor twins no one else talked to.  Was a friend to Betty Buckner who developed early and was threatening to all flat-chested girls.  Was a friend to George Cotner until he got the wrong idea.  Everyone liked me.

Songs of experience

Lingate Swim Club.  See above.

1982-1987 Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship Staff  (Boston:  Harvard, Brown, Bunker Hill Community College;  Atlanta:  Emory and University of Georgia)  Worked with and for Black People.  Learned firsthand—painfully, joyfully—about race. 

1987 Became a Jane Austen devotee.  Bought her CD and her videos. Went to Breadloaf Writers Conference and discovered I can write a sentence but not a story.  Mad crush on Nicholas Delbanco.

1988-1993 Added three to the madding crowd.

1993-present Diffident forays into the preparation of various cuts of meat and other miracles of housewifery. Read all the Booker Prize books, the breadth (and depth where there was affinity) of Nobel laureates, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winners.  Dickens, a second run through the Bronte sisters, the James brothers, and the Russians, sundry poems, Kierkegaard, Kafka, Weil (again and again), etc.  Lolita.  Hmmm.  Traveled the dim pathways of the human psyche with these bright lights.

1999 Graduated from Candler School of Theology.  Wrote a 20 page paper at one end of the dining room table; sewed Halloween costumes at the other.  Dinner twice a week at Los Bravos.  Held on to my faith by a thread; after all, Nietzsche had a point.

2000 ff. Undertook the sport of rowing.  Discovered I’m a natural.  Old dog; new tricks.  Won the Georgia Games and competed respectably in the Masters Nationals. 

2003 Visited Rome and was uninspired by the many beautiful churches.  Went to the apartment where Keats died and had a religious experience.

2008 Taught a class on Wine and Jesus for The Atlanta Wine School.

2009-present Substitute teaching at The Lovett School including a ten week stint in the august company of Ulysses and Holden Caulfield with 31 lucky freshmen.

2011 Undertook the reading of Ulysses in the merry company of five like-minded fellows well fortified with Irish stout.

1987-present I’ve been out there mixing it up in a world gone awry—exercising valuable leadership with non-profits and giving as I’ve been given. Three years tutoring kids at Scottish Rite. Three non-profit boards (presently serving):  Hands on Atlanta, Sanders/Buckhead YMCA, Global Partners for Development. Five years teaching Sunday school to kids who wanted to be elsewhere. Five years ushering at the Shakespeare Festival. Thirty five hundred+ miles on Bike Ride Across Georgia (five trips) and the Underground Railroad route with the Dream Team, inner-city middle and high school students. Eight years of dedicated service to the homeless and addicted at Café 458. $35,000+ raised for the YMCA Partner With Youth, Buckhead YMCA Volunteer of the Year. Innumerable glasses of milk spilled and wine consumed. Mostly, I was just a good mom. Almost everyone likes me.

To celebrate her life a service will be held at 10 o'clock in the morning on Saturday, November 17, 2012 at

St. Patrick's Episcopal Church

4755 North Peachtree Road  

Atlanta, GA 30338. In lieu of flowers please help Holly support the education of beloved friends. Use the following web address: http://collegeregistry.fipath.com/?r=50a3e7af4df276122409c8fa

For more information on the funeral service or to leave comments for the family please go to hollyprhodes.blogspot.com

 

A reception will follow service at the church.

Overflow parking is also available at St. Barnabas Anglican Church (next door) or Brooke Run Park across the street on North Peachtree Road.

 

Please visit http://hollyprhodes.blogspot.com .