Normally you see the smiling face or Newton County Appeal publisher Brent Maze in this spot.
But last week, Brent was in an automobile accident on Miss. Hwy 15 between Decatur and Newton.
The accident happened on Thursday and Brent was sent to Meridian and then to UAB in Birmingham. He had surgery on Friday and came through it like a champ.
As a matter of fact, I was leaving my home on Hwy. 15 going to Newton County on Thursday and saw Brent’s car. I didn’t realize at the time that it was him.
When I got to my interview, the young man featured on the sports page this week, Grey Hale, apologized for being late.
“There was a wreck in front of my house and I had to call 911,” Hale said. “It was pretty bad. He was bleeding pretty bad.”
Little did I know at the time that Hale was talking about Brent.
I relayed that information to Brent via text message and he told me to tell Hale a big “thank you for probably saving my life.”
On Friday afternoon, Dan Strack called me while my wife and I were touring Florida State University with my son Marshall. Dan asked if I would be willing to help them get the newspaper out this week while they figured out how to proceed in the next few weeks. So if your paper doesn’t look the same or we missed something that we should have run, please forgive us.
As I told Dan on Friday, I’m more than willing to help out, seeing how I published The Newton Record for five years and am entering my 31st year in newspapers. As I told the Appeal staff this morning, I can do everything that Brent does, I just haven’t been doing the things that Brent does and it will likely take me a little bit longer to do those things that Brent does.
So please, let’s keep Brent in our prayers as hope for a speedy recovery. We look forward to seeing him back in the office when he’s ready. In the meantime, you might be seeing my face a little more often as we try to figure things out on our end. All I ask is that you be patient with me and the staff at the Appeal.
