Three Rights Make a Left

by KEN LEONARD

LONG AWAITED TIME WITH FAMILY

This weekend my wife Lori and I got to spend a great weekend with family. It was an outing that we had always intended but never got around to.

For a couple of months, we had known that my cousin Stephen Willeford was going to do an event in Greenville, and we have been looking forward to seeing him. Stephen is the man who heard the shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, grabbed his AR-15 and engaged the shooter after he had killed 27 people including women and children. His story is an inspiration. We have another first cousin named Ray Robbins who is a very successful businessman and lives in Flower Mound, Texas. Ray has been involved in several businesses and real estate ventures, chiefly a company called Manitech. Almost two decades ago Ray bought a seven-acre peninsula that juts out into Lake Lewisville. Ray and his wife Dianna built a stunning three story, six-bedroom home at the tip of the oak shaded peninsula that sits thirty feet above the lake. The house is surrounded by hundreds of oak trees. Rather than put a swimming pool in the backyard that has the San Marcos River running through it, Ray, a graduate of Southwest Texas State University, built a “Lazy River” in his back yard for inner tubing in the shade of the oak trees.

For years Ray has invited us to stay at his house, but with my busy schedule and his travel all around the world with his work, it has never happened. That is, until this last weekend. Stephen is the National Spokesman for the organization Gun Owners of America and spent the week at the CPAC Convention in Dallas representing his organization. On Sunday after church, Lori and I picked Stephen up from the Hilton Garden Inn next to the Anatole Hotel where CPAC had taken place. We followed my GPS “Wilson” and finally found Ray’s house. It has been a few years since I had visited, and some changes had occurred since then. While there is still a lot of undeveloped area on the north side of Lake Lewisville, the street is flanked by huge, beautiful homes including on the seven original acres. Ray only kept one acre but the view from there is stunning. From the deck on the third floor above the trees there is a 270-degree view of the lake above the trees.

We got to spend an afternoon visiting and reminiscing while we inner tubed the lazy river in Ray’s backyard. Later that evening, we went to dinner at Rosa’s Café, one of my favorite places to eat. That night Stephen slept in a bedroom with windows on three sides, all with views of the lake, while Lori and I stayed in a similar room on the second floor. The next day we had coffee with Ray in his favorite spot overlooking the lake.

We left and spent the day helping Stephen buy a used car for his wife and got home with little time to spare before the event in Greenville. Ray stopped by our house, and we got a chance to show him and Stephen our 130-year-old home on 9 ½ acres in Lone Oak. We all went to the Hunt County Republican Party Fundraiser in Greenville at the Landmark On Lee Street, and Stephen did not disappoint as he told the story of his stepping up to do what had to be done at the shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs. I have to say it was a truly awesome weekend.