From There to Here

Carrollton Avenue United Methodist Church, New Orleans, Louisiana

Dad worked for a steamship corporation first in Mobile, AL, then for nine years in New Orleans, LA, before our family returned to Mobile. In New Orleans we attended Carrollton Ave. United Methodist Church, and that’s where I met Bill, later to become his wife after I graduated from Murphy High School in Mobile and he graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans. Our wedding ceremony, August of 1957 in Mobile, had Bill’s Uncle Bud come from Mississippi to officiate. That will be 66 years ago this August.

Uncle Bud found Bill a supply pastorate in North Biloxi, MS, and that’s where we began our marriage, the very next Sunday after our wedding. The parsonage behind the church was furnished and Bill had a small study where he added a small bookcase assembled by his dad. We still have that bookcase. Bill also secured a teaching job at D’Iberville High School when the principal phoned Bill to ask if he could teach Math. He declined, saying he would be suited better to teach English. The school hired him. For two years Bill preached twice on Sundays, led Bible study on Wednesdays, and taught English on weekdays. Those students have kept in touch with us until this day. For their senior year, Bill and I, along with another couple, led the students on a trip to Monterey, Mexico. Quite an adventure filling us all with lasting memories.

Bill accepted his next appointment in Lucedale, MS, for a four-point charge. That’s four churches in a not-so-distant area. Bill set up a new schedule to preach every Sunday at each church, satisfying their need for consistency and our need to know the parishioners better. After two years there and our second son on the way, Bill applied for ministerial training at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, KY. Bill got church appointments which provided our family with housing. After two degrees from ATS and two more children, we moved to Indiana and another church assignment while Bill attended Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. That meant Bill traveling on weekends to fulfill pastoral duties and connecting with family.

Back to Kentucky when called to be a substitute for a professor at ATS on sabbatical. Two years later, Bill with family moved across the street to Asbury College to teach and finish his PhD dissertation from HUC. Not going into details, we later moved to Greenwood, IN, to take staff positions for two years at One Mission Society. Then back to Asbury College when Bill was appointed Vice President of Academic Affairs.

Several years later we moved again to Indiana when Bill accepted a senior pastor position at World Gospel Church in Terre Haute, IN. After 19 years, Bill retired and we stayed on for nine years in a house we had built on 12 acres. During our time there I held a staff position at the local Crisis Pregnancy Center. In 2010 Bill contracted Legionnaire’s disease that accelerated dementia, later being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Southport Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis, Indiana

In July of 2017 we decided to move to Indianapolis to live with our daughter, Becky, a nurse, and her husband Paul. Each family sold homes and bought a house together. That’s where we are now with our “East Wing” apartment. We attend Southport Presbyterian Church where Paul is youth director. While we miss friends in former pastorates, we are satisfied with our move, adjusting to life with changes as we age and deal with Bill’s dementia. It’s “new every day.”

From Alabama and Louisiana to Mississippi, with long stops in Kentucky, we have settled in Indiana. From our roots in Wesleyan theology and membership still with the United Methodist Church, we attend a Presbyterian church with good gospel preaching. One former pastor of SPC often teases us by saying, “They let Methodists come here.” I tell him, “Yes, it’s because of you.” Through all these times God has been good to us.

This topic was inspired by a blog post I read from a writer friend Anna Holloway