Shopping with Marlyn

Marlyn is such a giving person and such a testimony for all the trials that she faces every single day. She was diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodkins lymphoma about 7-8 years ago, she has fibromyalgia and her eyesight has been giving her some problems lately. On top of all that, her husband, Steve, has battled with hep-C for about the same length of time and they both are grieving over the death of their little companion, Dusty, who had kidney cancer. Through everything, they still laugh, sing, and enjoy the beauty of life all around them in their apartment at Dowling Park. It really puts all my minor little aches and pains into perspective and humbles me everytime I think that the entire world is ready to cave in - I can look at these two and really see the hand of God working in their lives.

Yesterday, Marlyn needed to go into Live Oak for her monthly shopping. We get started about 8:30 a.m. and head into town for breakfast - today we went to Hardees. This is the first trip since my knee surgery and it was feeling pretty strong, but I knew I had better wrap it up since this was going to be a lot of walking and stops. The first place we hit after breakfast was the local Walmart. Marlyn had to get several things from all over the store; pharmacy, clothing and groceries. From there we went to Peebles so she could look for shorts for Steve - their anniversary is coming up (June 4, 25 years). This is a little small department store located in an old K-mart. And then it was on to Publix for the final part of the groceries that she needed. We were finished shopping about 11:30 a.m. and for us that was doing really well. My knee thought otherwise and was really tired for the rest of the day. But that little bit of discomfort really doesn't undermine the absolute joy that I have in being able to do just this simple task for her and Steve. Driving and making all the different stops is just a way to show them just how much they mean to me and it is something that really helps me to share my time with them. I learn so much from Marlyn everytime we are together in just how God is working in their lives and I know that He is always going to be there for them and for me and Bob as well.