GIVING THANKS

The greatest gifts – for them I give thanks

 Above all things, Thank you God for my friends, for my best friend Gerard Francis Johnson who walked with me for 50 years and a month. After knowing each other for nearly six years, he believed in me enough to share the fact that I was a person, too, a child of the Creator, that my voice given me by that Creator could speak, that my ideas could be shared. He welcomed me into the world.

 He was best man at my wedding (truly the best). He is the godfather of my son. He was the first person that I called after I got engaged as well as the first person that I called (collect) when I found out about the other two women in my husband’s life. In every emergency, he came without question and I love him dearly.

 Thank you for my friend, JoAnn Allen who has walked with me since I was 19. She shared her family with me and just shared news about her daughters July wedding.

 Thank you for my friend Saran Ann Edward Haskins who has walked with me from the cradle, and into eternity we will go.

 Thank you for my friend Mabel Dean Reed in Stratford, California. Mabel was the first person that I bared my soul to as an adult (on the first day that I met her, no less), and through your goodness and mercy, she massaged my heart and expanded my love for you and for all people.

 Thank you for the five years of friendship you gave me with my cousin Debra Ann Jackson.

 Thank you for my mother whom you chose for me at a late age, but was the greatest blessing of my life and continues to inspire and motivate me.

 Randy Rodriguez who saved my life

 For all the friends who in times of trouble you sent to me.

We walked together for short periods as You guided me and led me in the right way.

Crystal Worth in Atlanta.

Charles de Witt in Memphis.

And so many college and post grad students from 3 university campuses.

 For giving me a place in your creation.

Above all thank you for my children, without whom all of the many friendships would not have taken the twists and turns they did. Some friendships would not have been formed. I would have had no one to share the sound of a cloudburst, or a circular rainbow, or ball lightning – no one to stand on the sand in awe and wonder. No one to experience trees to touch and to feel and to know life.

 Thank you for my collective Red Hat Sisters, women who crossed the same paths in different ways in many places.