Who They Are!

Remember the "Real People" post, well this is who they are....well a few of them, anyway....

If you didn't read the "Real People" post, you need to read it before reading up this one to understand it.

Let's see, we'll start with Ms. Louise and Clarence. She was a divorced woman who lived with her handicapped brother and sister. Her sister did little to inspire me except for the laughs, but Ms. Louise and Clarence were very inspirational to me. I don't even have the first memory, because I was too young, of walking down the beaten path to her house on a daily basis to play with the children that she kept. She made her living keeping children because her husband left her for another woman, leaving her with 6 young boys to raise on her own, all of which turned out to be fine men, I must say, and were grown with children our ages by the time we met her. The only thing I ever recall Ms. Louise questioning God over was why she had to put up with her paranoid sister. LOL!! Neither of them could drive, and depended on the mercy of friends on Saturdays to take them to the store to purchase everything they would need for the week. They were present at church every time the doors opened. In the 12 years that Dad pastored their church, I could probably count on one hand the services they missed.

They hit the floor running at 5:00 sharp every morning, and were the 2 hardest working individuals I've ever met in my life. Their sister, on the other hand, had to be the laziest individual I ever laid eyes on. I remember a few summer mornings I would get up and meet them at their house between 5-6 to pick peas or butterbeans. They raised the most beautiful gardens anyone ever saw. Looking back at just how pretty their gardens were and how much food they raised on their own, and how much of a job I act like it is to keep my 4 tomato plants alive every year is, I have to say they were 2 of the most talented individuals with the ground that I've ever seen.

Clarence had a major speech impediment and it took a sharp ear to half understand anything he said, but Laura was his "Darling" and he called me "Pretty Girl." Neither of which sounded like what I've just written. We just somehow knew that's what he was saying. He used to get frustrated with us when all of us kids would chase his chickens around the chicken yard and get them all upset. He would get so mad and beat his fist together then act like he was headed down the beaten path to go tell Dad on both of us. He'd get a few yards down and then back out.

But like the song said.......Real people with definitely real struggles.........I see the real struggles now even more than I did then. It's a pretty amazing thing. But their situation never made them consider leaving the love of Christ. It's kinda like it was embroidered into their lives.
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Then there's Marjorie Wynn. Now, there's someone who knew real life bruises. She was a young widow raising two young daughters when we met her. She also raised a garden....hunted her own meat, chopped her own firewood. She was the toughest lady I knew. I think back then, I was convinced she was braver than my dad.....truth is, she probably was. (Sorry Dad) I can remember running to her more than one time when I was scared of a particular guy who was "big and Bad" and frequented our church. She forewarned my dad that she was gonna take care of him - and I got to witness it. He walked into church and sat down trying to get me and my sister to come over to him. She walked right up to him.....much braver than me.....and got nose to nose with him and said, "Tommy, if you ever get near or touch one of these girls, I'll kill you." He started stuttering and said, "M-M-Ms. Margie, I - I - I won't h-h-hurt those girls." She said, "I know you won't. I'll see to it!" From that day on, she was my MAJOR HERO! Tommy knew that she was serious.

When I was about 12 or 13 years old, Margie remarried. I remember feeling such a warm and fuzzy feeling about that because she finally had someone to help her share her workload. It was such a relief to my young mind. She married a man named Buster. A couple of years after she married Buster, they bought an old "hole in the wall" gas station in a little town called Silas, Alabama. It was a Texaco that had been owned previously by her brother. They bought it, and worked their ends off at it for not much of a profit at all, but both of them were the most giving people I've ever known. One of the most wonderful things that Margie did for me in my life was something that I'm forever indebted for and will never forget, as long as I live. When I was in college, every Monday morning, she'd fill my car up with gas to get me through the week. She will never know how much I appreciated that. Even with all the struggles she had, still has, and the bruises she obtained, she was real! Oh, how I appreciated that.
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Then there's Sis. Doris Holyfield. She and her family were always so good to us. We ate dinner with them quite often and the menu was usually pretty much the same. Either fried chicken or roast. Butterbeans, mac-n-cheese, a few more vegetables, and burnt rolls. Always burnt rolls! lol! We didn't seem to mind, though. We were all trying to keep from laughing the whole time while utter chaos was always present. There was always laughter. Their house was always full of love and laughter. Even though there were struggles. Their entire family revolved around Michael, who was born with cerebral palsy and severe heart disease. He was always the center of attention and loved every minute of it. Their doting ways toward him always impressed me and just his very life impacted me in ways that I'll never forget.

Michael died in April of 2006. He was around 25 years old. I was standing at Westgate Resorts in Gatlinburg, TN, having just discovered I was expecting Addison, when Mom called me to tell me he had died. I cried like a baby right there in the parking lot of that resort. I knew that there was not one thing they could look back on and regret during his life about how they should have slowed down and took advantage of their time with him. They did that well! I think that's what made a difference for me. They knew that one day they would not have him and wanted to make every moment count.

They were all real, with real struggles. My innocent eyes were watching and because of this list of people and many more, it was an easy thing for me to embrace the Love of Christ. I definitely knew "real people," although they had "real struggles", they had "real joy" and "real hope." And through it all I found "real faith!"