Totally Wonderful; Completely Heartbreaking - Part 2

Announcements - SPREADING WING - Signed books are now available at Covenant Bookstore, Arkadelphia, Ar. You can preview the book really well on amazon.com. It will be there on Kindle soon. Press "liked" if you like!
     I will be reading my story, The Summer of My Broken Heart, at Tales From the South, Starving Artist Cafe, North Little Rock, on Jan. 29. This will later be on National Public Radio. Barbara gives me her minor version of THE LOOK about this, but she's a good sport.
     The Grand Opening for Spreading Wing will be at Wing, Arkansas, Wing Community Church. (The pews there were installed in 1880, built from 2x16 virgin lumber.) Feb. 2 at 1:00. Visiting, book signings, story readings at 2:00. Refreshments, starring cold biscuits and salt pork sandwiches. Please, at least come by and eat some of that salt pork. I'm begging now. Or, Barbara will be feeding me that stuff for a month!  I've already eaten enough for two lifetimes!
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      Lisa was our one connection between Calvary in Hannibal and OBU in Arkadelphia. She grew up in Calvary, and when she showed up in Arkadelphia, we took her under our wing. She worked for Barbara, on occasion. She was a photography assistant, cleaned our baseboards when Barbara was down in her back, and helped Barbara throw a tea party. Those kind of jobs are more plentiful in Arkadelphia, more so than the real jobs. She was training to be an athletic trainer, and had to transfer soon. Way too soon. She just got married this year.

      Dayton graduated last year, and is currently getting a good, long look at some of the hard things in life, as well as some of the beautiful ones, as an African missionary. She's had dozens of marriage proposals while there, and took a young child, very ill with  Aids, in to live with her. She's there for a year.

      Bethany is a Spanish major, and is currently studying in Spain for a year. We miss her. But we'll get her back, for a time.

      Hillary and Annie have an even longer relationship with Fellowship Church than we do. Her parents were some of the founders. But their father, Michael, my best friend, was killed in a motorcycle accident, years ago. Hillary graduated from HSU, Annie from OBU. Hillary and John now live in Tennessee, Annie and Clayton in Texas. Fortunately, they both pass through Arkadelphia to visit each other. That gives us a chance to see those beautiful babies they are having.

      I took Aaron catfishing several times, setting out sixty or so cane poles. Aaron says I taught him a good lifetime hobby. Aaron is a biology major, like I was. He soon hooked up with Cayla-Marie. They got married, and have moved on to Fayetteville. Cayla-Marie is a distance runner, like I once was, sixty pounds and fifty years ago. They are a perfect match. Like two bookends. With  emphasis on perfect.

     Gobi was two weeks short of a Master's degree when diagnosed with cancer. He was alone in this country, a student at HSU. Our church took him in, along with a lot of help from HSU. We drove him to Hot Springs to chemotherapy treatments regularly. When he got too weak to look after himself, Barbara and I took him in. Barbara often helped him dress to take him to yet another chemotherapy treatment. Barbara stood up in our small church one Sunday, said Gobi needed to go to MD Anderson Hospital at Houston. She needed $2000. by Friday. On Friday, she had $2000., a plane ticket, and paid motel reservations. He is now cancer free, a professor in Malaysia, has a beautiful wife and daughter. Our daughter put up a wonderful post on Facebook recently about her parent's love. A comment immediately popped up, from a world away. “I know all about that love. It saved my life.” Barbara and I had a good cry.

      Joann graduated from OBU, sold everything she owned to raise money to go to China as a missionary. She stayed for years. When in this country recently, she came by and spent the night. I got out a truly weird thing I bought at a garage sale in Australia, to ask her if she knew what it was. She ran away screaming. Seems it was a Chinese idol or god of some sort. It has been a totally well behaved weird thing in my closet for years now. Maybe she knows something about it I don't, but need to.

      Daniel is one of the few who has not broken our hearts. He graduated from HSU, and found a real job in Arkadelphia. A rare thing. He still shows up regularly at our house on Sunday nights.

Another Daniel spent much of his time, while in Arkadelphia, wandering the poor neighborhoods, meeting children, bringing them to church, playing with them, as well as making them totally adore him. A local lady once saw what he was doing, called him over to her car, handed him several hundred dollars, told him to spend it on the kids as he saw fit. He did. He also visited elderly, lonely ladies regularly, and drove them wherever they needed to go. We finally hired him to do that job, and train others to do the same. But there was only one Daniel Graham, and when he and others he trained moved on, that work lessened. But others were inspired by him, as we all were, and are beginning to take up the slack. Before he left, Barbara asked him to be her Words With Friends (internet Scrabble) buddy. He told Barbara he would take it easy on her. Barbara replied, “No! I want you to do your very best!” Soon Barbara was beating him regularly. There's only one sixty four year old Scrabble player like Barbara. I learned that long ago.

Kate hung around Arkadelphia after graduating, even ran her own business for a time. She worked tirelessly on our church Kid's Festival. Now she and Brian have moved on. Seems a seminary is now in their future.

      Yet another Daniel, and Kathleen, are twins. They were both in our group. Daniel and Lauren fell in love. That romance, also, could have started in our living room, but maybe not. We now see their beautiful baby regularly. On facebook. Kathleen is a gifted dancer, a talent best used in a larger city.

      Most recently, Tim, our tireless power point and computer expert at our church, and his wife Kayla, who could always be found at our church working with the kids, left for Colorado, he for seminary and she for a university job.

      Kylie was my best renter ever. An old soul, still in her twenties. She hung around for an advanced degree. Then, she had a chance to work with Neal Nelson, one of our pastors and director of HSU's Baptist Collegate Ministries. Who could pass up a chance to work with Neal? As a really big plus, she met and married Daniel, (We just love our large flock of Daniels!) still finishing up his own degree, a budding Sports Analyst or Sports Information Director. But, we fear he will soon carry her away from us, to a larger city, where his expertise will probably lead him. But we won't like it.

      This is just a sampling. I could go on and on. My apology to all those equally loved students I didn't have room to include. Wherever our wonderful university kids/adults are in this world today, they will always be in our hearts. But we'll see them again. In this world or the next.