Beech Tree News Network

My friend, Marjorie, is one of the most extraordinary women I have ever known.  It would shock her to know I think that.  She is one of those people who has always lived her life by doing the next right thing.  She is small and driven and she will not quit—anything—if she is convinced it is the thing she should be doing, and there are many things she is convinced she should be doing.

She was a child unplanned for.  Resented by her mother.  Adored by her father.  She was a very bright child, but she hated school.  Her older sister would walk her to elementary school each day, only to find Marjorie had followed her back home.  She was what many parents would describe as a handful.

Marjorie married young, but not well.  Her husband suffered from mental illness.  Judging by his symptoms, he would probably be diagnosed as schizophrenic or bi-polar by today’s health care professionals.  I don’t know how she survived some of his episodes.  When his behavior finally became too extreme for Marjorie to live with safely, she left, but not before giving birth to a son.

She adored her son and he adored her.  Marjorie carved out a life for him, for them by selling things at the local flea market in the mornings then working a late shift at the C-store.  Her son would call to check in with her at least twice during her shift, so she would know he was safe.  As he grew into adulthood, it was he checking on her, fearing his dad might appear out of nowhere to harm the mother he would give his life for.

Marjorie became manager at the local C-store then district manager over several stores in the chain.  Her son, like she, was bright and driven.  He graduated high school with honors and decided to attend Georgia Tech.  He met a girl there, an engineering student like himself.  They married and had two little girls.  Marjorie drove down to visit every chance she got.

Her son developed his own tech support company, his wife accepted a job with Boeing Aircraft, and they moved their little family to Seattle Washington, Boeing’s center for operations.  Marjorie’s son ran his company out of their home in order to be a stay-at-home dad.  He was the one who got his daughters up and out the door each morning for school, where they attended classes with the children of Bill and Malinda Gates, of Microsoft fame.  His wife traveled the world for Boeing, taking the little family along when she could.

Marjorie and her son still talk on the phone every week.  He flew in recently to stay with his mom during a frightening bout she had with pneumonia.  Marjorie will be seventy-two years old this September.  She has the kind of painful arthritis that would stop many people in their tracks, but she continues to get out of bed each morning with a mental list of things she wants to accomplish that day.

I have always believed every person you cross paths with gives you something of themselves, even if they are not conscious or doing so, even if you are not conscious of their doing so.  I am very conscious of what Marjorie has left me.  It is the realization that very little of my life path is written in stone.  I determine much of my own destiny just by not turning back.

Duke Ellington said there are two rules for life: #1. Never quit.  #2.  Always remember rule #1. 

Marjorie always remembers Rule #1.