[Oe List ...] The Gifts of Marianna

[John Ballard]

Dear Marianna,

When we came to the Washington DC house at 4th and Rhode Island, NE, the old
Discalced Carmelite Monastery building, surrounded by a cemetery, we were
assigned to a room across the hall from Jim, Karen and baby Jonathan Troxel.
Since we were pregnant with our own baby (soon to be Christopher), we
appreciated our neighbors who helped us settle in.  That was January 1971.
By August, 1971, new leadership was assigned to our DC house and we met
Marianna and Bill Bailey for the first time.  The first thing that struck me
was the nearly instantaneous set up of the room across the hall.  With
energy and decisiveness, Marianna and Bill had that space ready to go in a
day.  Pictures hung, décor set up and all.  I realized there was a force in
the house to be reckoned with!  Marianna and Bill were amazing priors,
thoughtful leaders, helpful parents to new ones like us.  We felt cared for,
more than anything, by the spirit maturity that these two inseparable priors
brought to us.  Marianna, remember the walls of the Great Hall that were
covered in burlap to prevent the walls crumbling.  Thanks to the Newkirks
and many, many other DC colleagues and staff, this massive project made it
possible to have a huge meeting space in the basement just down the hall
from the kitchen and just past Larry Philbrook’s room.  By the following
year, you were reassigned and so were we.  Life was good in the Washington
DC house.  I believe that Lynda and John Cock followed you and Bill.  I’m
sure someone else will tell the stories of Oklahoma 100.  I was grateful to
spend a month in Oklahoma City doing in-kind donations in preparation for
that gigantic campaign of Town Meetings.

 

Marianna, we are so grateful for your long life of steadfast dedication to
care for all and care in the local.  May you feel blessed at this time and
journey on, journey on.

God’s grace and peace be with you,

Louise and Jack Ballard

     

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