Classmates

As I wrote about yesterday...relationships are so important in life.

Here are some more classmate profiles:

LaToya was our clinic in-processor today. It has been several months since she served us. Today she was absolutely bubbly! I commented that she must be the happiest woman in Little Rock. She said she was! She had dreamed about a needy person she knew and this morning she got good news about his spiritual situation. She could not contain herself!

Carol met us as we got off the shuttle van. She and Deb quickly embraced and checked on each other. She had shared the chemo room with us a lot on our last trip out. She had such bad medical reactions and experiences that she is contemplating just going home to Kentucky and living out whatever days she has remaining. Her joy while home? She raises old-fashioned tomatoes from a family variety. She went home and stayed until all her tomatoes were canned.

Jerry and Pat Mayfield live in their fifth-wheel camper in a campground 20 miles away. They no longer have a home or property. Pat has multiple myeloma and crippling arthritis. Her fingers and toes are curved, crooked, and barely functional. Jerry is from Deb's childhood home-Rose Creek, Tennessee. Rose Creek is a suburb of Adamsville and Selmer,Tn.

When Deb and I first got married and traveled home to meet her Tennessee family, I thought we had reached the end of the earth when we headed out for Rose Creek. Deb's great grandfather's house is still there and occupied by 10th cousin Burley.

Jerry's family lived in an old 1810 log house with no toilet or water. Jerry's great-grandfather was born in that log house in 1839. Jerry was born in the same log house in 1939...100 years later.

Talk about roots!

These are some of our classmates who are  living through the same challenges we are.

Vern