touchstones

We all have them...people in our lives who leave indelible marks and help define our character or guide our life journey.  Most times, it's those people we see on a daily basis or who have been around us for a good number of years.  Parents, siblings, grandparents, mentors...

In my life I've been blessed to have dozens of people who have served as touchstones.  My parents, friends, family, pastors, school chums.

But then there's a guy like Gus.  Augustus Swain.  When we lived in Jefferson City he was a young man in his early twenties, taking classes at Lincoln University for his Master's degree.  He was from Little Rock, alone in Jeff City, no family or friends.  I think my mom met him when she was working at LU for a time.  Anyway, he started showing up at our house for meals and hanging out and essentially became part of our family.

He came to my wedding in 1981.  He had long since moved back to Little Rock and worked for the University, but still made semi-regular trips to see my parents.  By "semi-regular" I mean he'd call and say he was coming to visit and a year later show up, always bearing gifts for us.  It became a running joke.
Mom:  Gus called today.
Me: How is he?
Mom:  He's coming to visit!

Gus came to Tyler's high school graduation AND his college graduation.  I get a card every Mother's Day (as does my mom).  He just turned seventy so he's been a part of our lives for almost fifty years.

The thing is...he only lived in Jefferson City for a year.  And I only found out that detail a few years ago.  I assumed he'd lived there the whole time we did (12 years)!

Talk about leaving an indelible mark.

Mike McCulley is another touchstone for me.  Fifteen years ago (or thereabouts), I worked as a nurse assistant at Kanakuk Kamp, a Christian athletic camp near Branson.  I basically made fifty gallon barrels of Gatorade all day for the counselors.  Mike, and his wife, Darlene, were the nurses who did all the heavy lifting, tracking and dispensing hundreds of meds to campers all day long, and tending to the usual scrapes and bumps that come along when kids and nature collide.

The Left Behind book series had just come out and I'd brought the first edition along to read during my down time.  Mike quickly began stealing my book for his break time and would then gleefully alert me to spoilers (which he clearly made up) before I could read them.  They were both wonderfully genuine people and even though I only spent a mere seven days with them, they touched my life in an almost undefinable way.  They're just good people.  Over the next few years I saw them briefly each year when I'd drop off or pick up the kids for camp and we'd laugh again about him being a book thief.

Then Mike was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and it was pretty advanced.  A mutual friend of ours kept me up to date on his progress and he managed to beat the odds for a few years.  One year, during our annual trip to Colorado, the kids and I sat on a rocky crag overlooking Copeland Falls and prayed for Mike, for Darlene, for their kids.  We prayed for healing, for peace, for comfort.  We've been to Colorado many, many times, but that memory is the most vivid one for me. The day the email arrived to let me know of his passing was a hard day.  The following Sunday, on my way home from church, "I Can Only Imagine" came on the air.  It had just recently been released and as I drove home, tears streaming down my face, I realized that Mike didn't have to imagine...he was already there.

I love that God puts people in our lives - even if only for a brief time - who impart an intangible powerful feeling of...I don't even know what to call it.  Continuity?  Purpose?  Expanding our connection with Creation?

Whatever it is...I'm grateful.  So, so grateful.