The Hoppers

Three photos in this post

Goodness! I promised you another post after Monday’s post but didn’t realize it would take me three days to get there! Needless to say we are getting tired BUT it’s a GOOD tired. SO let’s get back to Monday night with the Hoppers. Claude Hopper (dad) has been singing gospel music for 58 years! Connie, his wife, has been by his side for most of those years. Two weeks ago, Claude had a stroke whilst they were in Kentucky and Connie has just finished chemotherapy for her second bout of cancer. Dean (son) was very emotional (understandably) and started singing with his wife Kim, their eldest daughter and a new tenor singer that is helping them out. After the first couple of songs Dean started talking about grace and then introduced Claude and Connie. The crowd went wild and clapped and clapped for several minutes! Nobody was expecting to see Claude and Connie, let alone see them dancing on the stage! The atmosphere was electric. Claude has recovered remarkably but still has problem ending his sentences so the family helps him out. Connie was looking really good. To see those two singing with their family was enough to bring tears to anyone’s eyes.

The surprises were not over. In the second half, Dean introduced the crowd to their bus driver (the one with the beard) who “gets us from A to B to C to D”. He then proceeded to introduce Hoppers 2.O, a male quartet! The darn bus driver was/is an excellent singer!

We have seen a lot of music history this past week that we may never see again. How many of you know the hymn Beulah Land? For some reason I had always thought that hymn had been written a LONG time ago like some of the other greats but that is not the case. Squire Parsons wrote that hymn in 1973! Although I had seen Squire on the Gaither videos, I had never seen him live in concert. He started writing songs in 1968, the year I was born so can’t forget that and has since written many, many songs. Although now an older man who has been suffering with cancer and still taking chemo treatments, it was truly a piece of living history to see him.

We continue to meet and talk with different folks. We have done 8 days so just 4 left.

Blessings,

Liz