A COLLAR FOR CHRISTMAS!

 This post is extremely personal to me.  That's because it is about my husband, Gary.  

It was not an easy decision to make this post, because Gary is a very private person who doesn't like to be in the spotlight - in fact if truth were told, I had to really work on him to convince him that his story was special enough to even be told!

If you met Gary for the first time, you would say he's a quiet fellow, friendly, a nice guy.  All those would be true.  His gentle soul was what first made me love him, all those years ago.

But he is also fiercely loyal to those he loves, and he also has a generous amount of stubborn determination, when life demands call on him to use it.

Gary was born in Chicago in 1956, he is 64 yrs old, and we have been married for 36 years.  

In 1977, when Gary was 21 years old, he had a tragic accident, that should have ended his life - He fell 32 feet from a Ferris Wheel at a small amusement park in Justice Illinois.  

The accident was remembered in a column in the Chicago Tribune called "What Ever Happened to..." in 2009.

Have a read:

Gary recovered his injuries, but what he didn't share with the press in the Update above was his recollections of the fall itself.  Only those close to Gary know what he felt as he plunged the 32 feet to the ground.  

He recalls having no fear in the seconds it took for the bar of the cage he sat in to swing out, and for him to reach the small arcade roof, which he crashed through, essentially breaking his fall before he hit the cement pavement.  What he did feel was a presence, as if someone was with him, cradling him as he fell... a feeling that has stayed with him all his life.

Fast forward thirty years or so.  Gary's vision which has been poor due to severe myopia is deteriorating rapidly.  After being assessed by several specialists, Gary is told that he is going blind and there is no cure.  He can no longer drive, or work, and is now confined to our home.  He has begun falling down stairs and having accidents around the home due to his inability to see.

Instead of becoming a victim of his circumstance, Gary walks to a nearby Lutheran church, where he once was employed as an organist.  He meets with the Pastor, who has known Gary for a long time.  He explains his need to feel useful, and his desire to do something, even though his options are extremely limited. 

The pastor points Gary to a organization called Lutheran Volunteer Ministries, where volunteers are trained to visit shut-ins in hospitals and care homes to bring spiritual care and comfort to the people they visit.  Soon Gary is Volunteering at Misericordia Hospital and participating in personal visitation as well as group spiritual care gatherings.  His vision continues to deteriorate, and in desperation he visits his local optometrist who refers Gary to one more specialist for consultation on his blindness.

After several visits to the new specialist, Gary is slated for surgery ( removal of massive cataracts) and within months, he can once again drive and work and function in the normal world.

Gary is offered the position of co-ordinator of Lutheran Volunteer Ministries, which he accepts and he throws himself into his new vocation with all he has.  He begins study in Theology and progresses from

Lay-Minister
to a Deacon.  He begins performing  monthly church services in Personal Care homes, and then progresses to church services to congregations in a church setting.  

Gary continued his studies and now he has received Ordination from the Independent Lutheran Synod as a Pastor.

At 64 years of age, Gary has achieved his life- long dream, and I am so proud because I know first hand how difficult this journey has been.

If ever a life has been powered by the hand of God -  Gary's surely has.

- - -

I was going to get him a new wallet for Christmas ( he needs it), but instead I am shopping for a special shirt and a special collar. 

 

CONGRATULATIONS!

Pastor Graumann.