Forty years later…still married to John…

We have seven children, six of whom are married with kids, 14 to be exact with two more on the way. The caboose Caleb is still in college at Wheaton in Illinois.

We still enjoy them all and their progeny when we can see them. They are scattered…David is a chaplain in the Army and is stationed at Fort Bliss, Washington. He married wonderful Mia from Slovakia, and they have two plus children. Marvi is a homemaker in Panama with four-plus children still learning Spanish and home schooling her two older boys while her husband Dan helps run a Panamanian airline COPA.

Micah lives in Wheaton, Illinois where six of our seven children have spent their college years. She is married to Dan who manages a hedge fund, and she spends her days being a Mom to four children and engaging in other church and community activities. Farr is in research in internal medicine at the University of Chicago. The only one who did not go to Wheaton, he finally arrived a bit late in this area of the country. He met Kimberly in North Carolina where he went to school, and they both brave the cold winters with their two boys with grace, even as they live in downtown Chicago where they have many Hispanic friends among their neighbors. It helps that they both speak Spanish.

Following in the tracks of his father, In June Howard finishes his residency in Ob-Gyn at Trippler Army Hospital in Hawaii. He and Michelle from Virginia both have the delightful coincidence of being named Lee after the “Beloved General” as John’s Grandmother would refer to Robert E. Lee. They are the new parents of a son and in July will be headed to Fort Campbell, Kentucky where he will begin to give the Army eight years for helping with his education. John Reid is our only one living near us after getting out of the Army a year ago. He is a Branch Manager for Am South Bank here, and he and his wife Laura enjoy their one-year-old son. Caleb will finish at Wheaton and serve in the Army for four years, as did four of our five sons who chose to go the ROTC route in college.

John at 63 is looking forward to retirement from medicine in a year or so. He now performs a specialty operation where he puts women’s tubes back together who have regretted sterilization. They come from far and wide after reading about the results from happy patients on the Jackson Clinic’s web site. After retirement he will also continue to pursue a ministry of praying with people who have deep hurts, often stemming from childhood pain. He himself has been “healed” of some of his own pain, which he was not even in touch with until a few years ago. Because of the great freedom that he has experienced, he spends most of his spare time praying with people, helping them find the “lies” they have believed, and inviting Jesus to bring truth to the lie. It may sound simplistic, but the healing has been life changing for some. It is wonderful when Jesus shows up! Jesus even heals the hurts of those who do not believe in Him as Lord of all.

John suffered a heart attack nine years ago, destroying about a 20-percent of his heart muscle. My cooking dramatically changed as we studied the advantages of a low fat vegetarian diet. He exercises regularly and feels well. We are very grateful for the added years God has given to us as a couple.

Well…what about me? I keep up with the above in some fashion, enjoy volunteering for this and that. After spending a lot of time promoting abstinence education and teaching the same in some schools, others more experienced and younger are taking over that role. Who wants to listen to a 57-year-old talk about such? I am sure they must think I am somewhat of a “dinosaur.”

Music continues to be a love of mine, and I enjoy leading music for a local Bible club that meets at the YMCA as well as joint teaching the lesson with others.

John was part of forming an evangelical church 27 years ago. We have served there over the years and still do but have especially enjoyed seeing younger ones come to the fore to take leadership for the next generation.

I married a man who loves to travel. We have taken our kids to see many places, even though one exclaimed with tired frustration as a child, “Dad this is not a vacation. It’s a field trip!” John has had three sabbaticals with his clinic. Two of them were spent in the United Arab Emirates and Kenya respectively in mission hospitals helping physicians who needed a short break from their schedules. Another was spent recuperating from by-pass surgery. We are CO-radio hosts for the local Armed Forces Radio station once a week on Tuesday mornings where we discuss issues that relate to the family. Our audience seems to especially respond to us sharing our mistakes as parents.

I should have been born before the computer was invented because I function at the kindergarten level on this machine. Hopefully in five more years I will have improved…sigh…I never even liked PAC man when it came out years ago, and I do not own a cell phone! I guess I am a dinosaur.

I am sorry to miss the reunion and hopefully will not have another engagement on my calendar when the 45th comes around. Thanks for all who have done the work. You are geniuses in my book! My apologizes to those who like shorter bios. I tend to be long-winded.