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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Dear Marianna,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>When we came to the Washington DC house at 4<sup>th</sup> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>God’s grace and peace be with you,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Louise and Jack Ballard<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>