HAPPY #94 PAPPO

What’s a birthday without banana pudding & a Diet Coke at Chubbys!

 

 

HAPPY "EARTHLY" BIRTHDAY, CHARLIE

 

 

Today marks the 4th birthday this man has spent healed of MS and without the need for a wheelchair. I woke this morning with a smile on my face knowing he is well, complete and most likely still cracking jokes no one understands in Heaven. I am so blessed to have had him choose me as his partner in his life....

Happy "EARTHLY" Birthday Charlie....we are headed to Ihop tonight in celebration of YOU......

My Heart Has Expanded - Happy Birthday Wayne

Love Lives On Forever 

(Click on Link Above)

 “My heart has expanded.  Because that’s what widowed hearts do.  They expand.  

One love isn’t moved out to make room for someone new....

but rather, an addition is built. 

The love widows can have for someone new, does not diminish the love for the one lost.  

It’s as strong and part of our lives as it ever was.  

But the expansion of the heart....is part of the grieving process.”

A year ago today, I introduced you to Wayne Sekerke....a Polish career Navy Chief from Pennsylvania with the gentlest and kindest of hearts and a million dollar smile.  We had met in the most Un-unique of ways......eHarmony. Personally...I believe it was actually “God-Harmony”.

I’m not going to fudge the truth here, friends.....it was HARD to tell you I was dating.  I feared you would think I was leaving the memory of Chuck behind.  I wondered if YOU were ready, not just for Liz to take a step forward, but also for yourselves to turn the page of this difficult chapter we all had been walking through.  

But the neat thing about turning the page and finding yourself at the beginning of a new chapter is that you always....ALWAYS....take the prior chapters with you.  You need them to make sense of the current chapter and I needed you to know that Chuck was coming with me as I turned the page.  Without him, this chapter couldn't have happened.

And so I told you about this amazing man this very day last year.  (See here).

https://murphys-mom.blogspot.com/2021/03/meet-me-in-middle-of-your-story.html

Today is that kind man’s birthday....and this year, I celebrate him as my husband.  And we have brought not just my late husband Chuck into this new chapter of our lives, but also Wayne’s late wife Cyndi.   This year has found me falling in love with Cyndi’s parents, Ken and Doris who have embraced and welcomed me into their lives and, although bitter-sweet for them, have been supportive of both Wayne and I.  The same is true for Chuck’s family; bitter-sweet yes....but with an accepting and loving heart as they made Wayne an honorary member of the Etheridge family.   

It’s been a year that made God smile.

Today we celebrate Wayne.....a man hand-wrapped and gifted to me for this chapter in my life.  I love that his friends refer to him as the “real deal”....”the most thoughtful and considerate man they’ve ever known”....”a Godly man”.  

I couldn’t agree more.

I love this man Wayne Sekerke....and I thank God every single day that He placed him on my path in this expanding chapter of our lives.

 

https://youtu.be/M57uH6SXXhs
 

 

A Cord of Three Strands Is Not Easily Broken

 A few years ago, a good friend from Mt. Vernon, Deborah Morris, came up to me after church and asked me if I had a shirt of Chuck's that she could borrow for a bit. As I went through my closet and looked through his shirts, I found one of his favorite shirts; it was a pressed and starched shirt (he always had to have his shirts starched and pressed) from the company he founded; Computer & Environmental Air Conditioning Company...C & E Air. I brought it to church the next week and handed it over to Deborah who proceeded to return it to me a few weeks later made into a pillow with 2 connected hearts at the bottom.

 

 It was beautiful....it was touching....and it made my heart soar!!

Fast forward 3 years.

Yesterday, I came home to a package waiting at the front door for me. Inside was the most beautiful wooden plaque with 3 corded ropes forming a cross. The words said, "A Cord of Three Strands Is Not Easily Broken", a quote from Ecclesiastes 4:12 that says, "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not easily broken."

This is referring to the union of two people and how this union can only be successful by having a 3rd person in the marriage. God.

There are simply no words to express my appreciation and love for this friend Deborah who has walked through two important chapters of my life with me and offered her support through both. My heart is so full of love for her....thank you, Deborah, from the bottom of my heart!!