[Oe List ...] Salmon: For Paula Philbrook

[William Salmon]

Paula -- Please share a couple of brief stories for us. 

    Beverly remembers the Philbrook collegiality and family care. It is another example of our corporateness. We had just returned from Korea and took an interim appointment in the United Methodist Church. Our youngest daughter Julie was in Chicago and needed to be sent to our home base to Salina, Kansas. In order to make the connection, Marge was on her way to the Kansas City House, and she was asked to take Julie to Kansas City to be put on the bus.
    It always amazed us concerning the care of the Emerging Generation and how they could travel around the world. It took special people that had the vision of what it meant to live as an extended family. 
    My story involves the memory of Phil and Marge. I have an idea that there are not many people in the Order that has as long a memory of this couple as Beverly and I do. This was the decade of the 1950's, Phil was a United Methodist Minister serving at South Haven, KS--there is nothing further in Kansas before crossing the border into Oklahoma. Our paths crossed many times at our Annual Conference meetings.
    When I was contemplating an internship with OE, I visited in 5th City. What a lovely mess that was--take that statement and face-value, please. Who should I run into but Phil and Marge? >From that moment on, they served as an example of what was possible for me to make the decision, for Beverly to accept it, and for our children to take up the Wedge Blade and live the missional life. 
    Marge--you've been the matriarch of one of the signal Order families. All of us--and I mean everybody--knew you always had our backs, and I mean all of us. You, your husband, and your family taught us to live "the hell out of life." What else would we want "out" of our lives, but the hell? 
    Thank you, and celebrate well. 
    Inner Peace,
    Bill and Beverly Salmon
PS: I'm doing something similar next April when I turn 80. To celebrate I'm getting a tatoo on my butt. This is the image of the "Power Cat" from Kansas State University. The words under it will be, "Last laugh!"
    What's so funny?
    Well, I've donated my body to the medical school at Kansas University. So, when some future doctor at KU turms me over. . . then, I'll have the last laugh.
    Wadcha think?
    Bill 

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