Insurance Review? Nope, another back road with Jesus.

Willie

Willie married Robert in 1960. I met with her to review her insurance. They've been insured by Farmers for some 30 years now. We talked about insurance for about 10 minutes. The rest of the hour we took a back road with Jesus together.

Willie and Robert have been married for 50 years now. They are in the time of life when you hope that you are both healthy enough to have been enjoying your “Golden Years” together. You have some fun, enjoy some restful vacations perhaps. Maybe taking an annual cruise or doing some sort of travel together. You get to see your kids and grand kids growing. Maybe you reach out to help them financially once in a while as they struggle with life.

Willie was pregnant with their third child 43 years ago when Robert was hit by a car and disabled. He was in the hospital for months. They didn't have much in those days as a young married couple with kids. Now Robert would be unable to work to provide for them. Sometimes he wasn't sure where he was. Though he survived the accident, life would never be the same.

So for 43 years Willie has been the primary parent, wage-earner and care giver to her disabled husband. Forty-three years. That's more than my entire life. As I think of the sheer weight of time involved there the hopes and dreams of “normal” flood in. But there has been no “normal” for Willie. If I were on an earthly plane I might have asked “how does someone find the strength to do that?” But sitting at her kitchen table we've been transported to another realm with Jesus. As Willie talked she shrugged off any question of “why?” like a flick of the hair. She described her 43 years without sugar coating. She didn't tell it through rose colored glasses but she didn't mourn any loss of dreams either. Her statement cut through all confusion as she ended her story saying “You don't expect or plan for life to be this way or that you'll have to struggle with things like this but he is my love.”

And this is what love does. Love cares for a disabled spouse for 43 years. And love does much more than that. Love gives everything to raise her three children to know Jesus. Love works and struggles to pay the bills. Love volunteers as a youth pastor for the Salvation Army. Love tells these young people that they can be more than their parents think they can be. Love reaches into the lives of these kids and fills them with a faith that Someone believes in them, that they are loveable. And the kids responded. They believed better of themselves because Willie saw them with the eyes of Christ, that they have value. Willie transforms her world with the love of God. Her love flows from the presence of Christ in her every movement. She speaks of the Lord as someone who knows experientially that He is right there next to her.

As we spoke Robert came into the room for a few minutes. I took time to answer his questions about their insurance even though she had just told me that his mind is going and he can't remember things anymore. For the past 6 years she has taken over even more aspects of care for him. The look in her eyes made it clear that she appreciated me treating him with dignity. After he left she said “He's having a good day today.” I'm almost embarrassed as I understand the intimacy I am witnessing between them. They speak to each other and about each other with such affection that being in the same room with them makes me miss my wife. I want to hold her hand now. Love is infectious that way.