Anniversary Week Ironies

Hello Friends,

Just bloggin...'bout some experiences over the past week that have my attention. Saturday, November 6, our anniversary...okay, okay: I get that. Memories and emotions at high levels were expected. I was so glad that Brian, Jessica, Meredith, and Brodie were here with me.

I always gave Trudy a dozen roses on our Anniversary, so I thought I would continue that practice as Brian, Jessica, and Meredith accompanied me to the cemetery to place an additional arrangement of a dozen roses at her headstone. My mom always took some cleaning supplies to my dad's grave and would make sure she left the marker clean and polished. I have adopted her model and I swept and polished Trudy's marker before we left.

This week our local Baptist churches have worked to provide uplifting school assemblies and special evening services for the entire area. We have brought a special "muscle" team (Mega Force) to nearly 40 schools; with a message of positive attitudes and strong principles of good self-esteem to the students through high energy performances utilizing amazing feats of strength. At the evening services, attendees were challenged to adopt and live a life of faith in Jesus Christ.

Check this out: the first Mega Force performance I attended was Cherokee Elementary in the subdivision were Trudy and I lived most of our first two years of marriage. Next was Tioga High School, where Trudy taught Chemistry and Physics for twenty-one years. Next was Rapides High School were Trudy graduated in 1969. Next up was LSU-A, where we first met. Then, I conducted a service at Riverview Baptist Church, where her parents held their membership and we would frequently visit during our early married years. Today, I went to a service in the Sanctuary in which we were married, at Horseshoe Drive Baptist Church. And tomorrow, I will attend a special Mega Force service at Louisiana College...where Trudy graduated from in 1973. I mean...wow! Memories flooded my being as an unstoppable Tsunami.

I drove past our old house at 1720 Clover Lane, I walked the halls at RHS and wondered if my feet were touching some of the very places were Trudy's feet had touched. I went to the spot where I first saw her on the campus of LSU-A and then the spot where we first met. At Riverview Baptist Church, I related some of the profound life lessons that I had learned from our recent journeys through unthinkable struggles. At Horseshoe Drive Baptist Church, I assumed the position I had taken 39 years ago, and once again, I was transported to that knee-buckling moment when the organ sounded the approach of the bride and those doors opened...and I gazed wide-eyed and open mouthed at the astonishingly beautiful creature coming down the aisle to marry...me!

But I think the most incredible moment this week occurred at Tioga High School. You see, I have been reluctant to go back to the school...as though there were some invisible barrier keeping me away. Oh, I have driven by the school many times. I even went in the "back" side of the school to vote at election time. But to go in and talk to her peers, to go and see her room, to risk being disappointed that her memory might have faded all too quickly...that is something that I frankly dreaded. On this past Tuesday, I walked into that school...her domain...her place of unique identity. Her peers greeted me warmly and compassionately. Principal Bennett treated me as an honored dignitary. And I watched as the auditorium began to fill, row by row, section by section with students. Seven to eight hundred students eventually filled those seats as Principal Bennett strode to the microphone. She would speak to the students and bring me up to the microphone where I would then introduce the Mega Force Team as the featured guest performers. As she brought me up, she spoke of Mrs. Daniel and her legacy as a great THS teacher...the students broke out into spontaneous applause. As the applause continued, I was as moved as I have ever been. They Got It! They recognized the true value of this one who had taught them. This was indeed Trudy's domain...an educator par excellence...a dedicated professional...a friend to students indeed! Man, I tell you, I wouldn't take a bazillion dollars for that moment.

I'm grateful for the flood of memories this week...this week for gracious sake! But, Tioga High School students and faculty; thank you, thank you, thank you...for refusing to forget Mrs. Daniel. I can't tell you how much that meant to me.

I do expect that the next blog will be dedicated to the birth and early years of our son, Brian. Brian, hang in there, your BIG DAY was wonderfully significant to your mom and me...and I look forward to telling that story...

Blessings,
Robert