Overlap: "Love is all there is."

Friday, June 30, 2017

"Love is all there is."

We played iPod shuffle all the way to Delphi this morning-- it's my favorite game to play with the CILTs.

We made our bi-weekly visit to St. E to visit with the residents and share songs from Tecumseh.

And the most incredible thing happened-- here's the story.

We have to start with Ruth. The last 9 years as a CILT counselor I have hung out with my friend Ruth Robertson every time the CILTs came to visit. She's the greatest and became such a special person to me. Ellyn never got to meet her because she stays at camp for clinics. This past October on our way to camp we stopped in Delphi so that Ellyn and Ruth could meet. She was having a hard day but she remembered me and held my hand and we got to chat.

Next you've got to meet Jim. He works at St. E and is hilarious. Liz and I have known for several years now and he loves to comment on our facebook posts. That day in October I talked to Jim and asked him to let me know if anything happened with Ruth. The very next day I got a message from him telling me that Ruth had passed away. She was 99 and lived a long and beautiful life.

Last Session I wandered St. E but didn't spend time with anyone in particular and just thought of Ruth. Today Liz and I spent time with a woman named Kathryn. She touched our hearts right away and gave us lot's of advice. She told us, "I met my husband at Purdue and we were married for over 60 years. When you get married one day just love him as hard as you can forever. If loves not there, why get married? It was never difficult-- just keep loving and then it's never hard... Take hold of life and live it to the hilt. Stay away from booze and stay away from drugs. You've got to keep it pure. And you will have a great life... Jesus is real. He is real-- just love him. Love is all there is."

I got to pray for her before we said good-bye and went back to meet up with the rest of the CILTs.

We found Jim and told him, "We found a new friend today!"
He asked who it was and when I told him Kathryn's name he looked at me in disbelief, "Kathryn Goley? You've got to be kidding. Are you messing with me?"

Then Jim explained that Kathryn's daughter Jen is married to Ruth Robertson's son Kenney. We had no way of knowing the connection and couldn't believe that of all the residents at St. E we had just spent our time talking with the woman who shared grandchildren with Ruth. God is so good.

Back at camp we found our fav Brave boys Jack, Leo and Zach who all moved up to blue bands today!!!! They wanted to go see the Mayor's office and we got to introduce them to the Mayor's Assistant Justin.