John Lincicome
Coincidence? Or fate?
I don’t subscribe to any newspapers. Not even the Trib here in T-Town. Makes no nevermind why, I just don’t. Haven’t read a newspaper in years. Maybe a decade, eh? Well…
A few days ago I was at work, and a news paper, the Tacoma News Tribune published on Tuesday, July 7th, was on the lobby table where I work. Some customer had brought it in and left it. For some silly reason I saw the paper sit on the coffee table that day. I took notice of it, eh? On the next day I grabbed that paper on my way out after work and asked out loud to the boss and a co-worker, “may I take this news paper?”
“Take it, get it out of here” someone said. No idea why I asked, none.
“I don’t care” said the boss, “take it and make it your own.” So I did. I took it and brought it home. It sat on the counter in the kitchen for a day. It made its way to the bathroom with my help, by the 10th…
I opened it up today, the 10th and fumbled through it. I stopped when I got to the Obituary page and scanned the listings. Among them was my ex-mother-in-law. Evangeline Marie Billingsley. I stopped scanning and focused.
Vangie was the one who gifted me a Bible when her daughter, Barbara and I split the sheets almost thirty years ago. I’d never read the Bible by that point in my life, but that changed in the weeks and months following. Inside the cover of that Living Bible Vangie gave me she'd written a few words, and to this day her thoughtful scribbles have visited many of my nows. She’s crossed my mind countless times over the years since then, as has the memory of her husband, my ex father-in-law, Chuck. The finest man I ever knew.
Stunned I was/am. The services for Vangie are this Sunday at 2:00 pm.
How is it that that newspaper found its way to my home? Devine intervention? Or coincidence? It’s the little things in life, that make the difference.
Sunday Service at 2:00. Speechless comes to mind.