Peg's Journey

Life Goes On

2010-05-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. It's been ages since I last updated you on my life but there is a reason.

The reason is that I fell in love with a dear friend and we will be married on October 22 in at Lafayette. Join us!

Who, you may ask, am I marrying after 27 years of singlehood? I am marrying the Rev'd Dr. W. Kenneth Williams of Rochester NY. Ken was the executive minister in Rochester when I moved there in 1995 and ten years ago went back into the local church. He is the pastor of First Baptist there.

Ken introduced to his wife Brenda who became one of my dearest friends. Scroll down and you can read about her passing last July. A four year battle with cancer took her much too soon. I went back to Rochester in September for her memorial service and delivered the prayer. Ken and I began talking and just never stopped. And now === ta-da!

We have seen the fingerprints of God all over this journey, from his daughter Erin's thought of us as a couple before we had even seen each other to other friends saying to Ken, "I picked her for you!" Then there were the three friends who asked me before the service if I thought I'd date Ken.

To each I said no, I didn't see that happening. Finally I said, "but if God has something in mind for us, I'm open to a change in my feelings."

Thud....it turns the change was in my heart. I have fallen in love with the most wonderful man in the world, and after all these years of living alone, he is taking on the challenge of living with me!

I will leave Lafayette First Baptist after worship on October 24 and become a NY resident again. I plan to take training to be an intentional interim minister in the early part of 2011 and seek a church as an interim.

In the meantime I am remodeling/redecorating the home we will live in. Ken and Brenda's home.

I know, I know. Sage advice says to get a place of our own and it makes perfect sense, but then there is reality. The economy. The love this family has for their home and with the loss of a wife/mother, mother/grandmother, brother-in-law/uncle in the last year, losing their home is just too much.

However, as much as I love Brenda (still) our tastes and hers differ. And the house needs updating so for a while you will watch and read about the wedding plans and the remodel.

Are you ready to join me?

Life is amazing

2009-09-01T04:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took a group of folks from First Baptist to Fair Oaks Farm in northern Indiana, about 45 minutes from Lafayette on I65. Maybe it is better to say they took me. Some of them have been and raved about the experience.

We took a tour of the visitors center, visited the barns where the cows, pregnant and otherwise, are housed, saw the foods they eat and visited the cheese factory. Unfortunately they were not making any cheese; fortunately they offered samples anyway and the restaurant makes the best grilled cheese sandwich I've ever had. Havarti pepper! Yum, yum. And they make their own ice cream. I heartily recommend the chocolate (of course).

As we were finishing our sandwiches I looked up and saw that the light at the barn had turned to yellow.

Red - nothing going on
Yellow - birth expected in 20-30 minutes
Green - move it now!

Both cows were first time moms. Cow on the right was pushing and pushing and got only a hoof to show for it. Cow on the left had a baby trying desperately to get out and mom was not very interested in helping out.

We had been told that only 5% of births needed assistance and both of these did. Cow on the left finally needed the midwife to pull when the front hoofs and head came out and labor stopped. Cow on the right needed her to put in the ropes and pull the babe out.

But all is well and those babies are incredibly beautiful. Check them out for yourself though.

Goodbye Brenda

2009-07-22T13:38:00.000-07:00

I am one of many who is dealing with the loss of a very dear friend this week. Brenda Williams passed away, quite abruptedly and unexpectedly, on Saturday morning. She will be laid to rest at the family farm in North Carolina, the home of her beloved Tar Heels.

I met Brenda in 1995 when I moved to Rochester NY. Husband Ken is a colleague there but at the time he was our executive minister. They took pity on this transplanted Hoosier and our love for football brought us together often. They introduced me to Terry and Annie and Andy and Deborah and on Sunday afternoons, particularly during the play-offs, we rooted....sometimes for the same team. Brenda and Ken always rooted for Buffalo. Andy and Deborah rooted for Green Bay and I, of course, will die an Indianapolis Colts fan.

Besides football we loved our families and we talked often of them. My children love her and I grew close to hers.

When our mutual dear friend Kathyrn called on Saturday and said, "This is the call you never wanted," I thought she was going to say that Brenda's cancer was terminal. The words, "Brenda passed away this morning" robbed me of my ability to speak. In fact I sat in Pizza Hut's parking lot sobbing.

The fact that so many people considered her a dear friend speaks volumes of Brenda's ability to love. She brought people together and, in fact, still is. I've "chatted" with Carol more in this past week than in years. I want to be with Kathryn and Ken and the children but that will have to wait until September when we gather for the service to celebrate her life.

I'm grateful to have known her. Grateful for all she has brought into my world and the worlds of many. Grateful to have called her my friend.

It really sucks to lose someone so special though. But if we leave this world without leaving a hole, we have lived in vain.

My friends, when you go, leave a really big hole.

love, peg

Please leave me a message

2008-03-26T06:26:00.000-07:00

Click on "new post" and follow the bouncing ball (not really)! You can leave messages here for me. I'd love to hear from you.