How Do You Say Goodbye to Love? / Movie: The Monuments Men

One of the last photos of Rosie, as she relaxed in her special place in my office.

How do you say goodbye to love after all the years, through all the joy and all the tears?

After nineteen years, nearly to the day, I find my little friend Rosie teaching me one last lesson – that you can never say goodbye to love.

Rosie was one of the dearest friends I have ever known. She was also among the greatest of teachers. Yes, she taught me so many important lessons about life and about love and about living. From Rosie, I came to appreciate the beauty found in every living thing.

A beautiful chapter                in the book of Love.

In caring for such an endearing heart, I found love for every other heart, however small. Her adoring eyes guided my thoughts in so very many moments, to the true need there is in this world for loving everything and everyone. She shared, in her affection for me, the true meaning of this existence, that caring for each other has far more value than anything else. That the time we spend together in loving and sharing, is what is truly treasured and remembered, when all is done.

I discovered that there is one love a child always keeps in his heart, even children all grown up. Puppy love is always love to enjoy and play with and to keep. Buried in the heart, and very, very deep, is what we find in such joy, when our very own puppy dog is ours to keep. For such a joyous gift gives love back a thousand kisses deep.

Yes, this is what a             Blessing looks like.

When we found this tiny puppy on the center stripe of White Settlement Road, she was extremely close to death. Traffic was heavy on both sides of the street and she lay, very small and nearly unnoticed, exactly in the middle of the road.

My family was en route to the funeral of our very dear friend, John Hammons, who died in a traffic accident. John was a master carpenter and was retired from the United States Air Force, when he heard about the Anderson family struggling to build a school for gifted children. He volunteered his time, over a period of four long years, and gave of his tremendous skill and talent, under very trying circumstance, to restructure and remodel the old Oak Grove Baptist Church Sunday school building, that we had moved to this location.

Annie Anderson and John Hammons

John would never accept payment and donated not only his time and hard labor but much in the way of materials. And, after every offer to pay him, he would simply say, “No, it’s for children”, and then he would quietly walk away. John died shortly after the school opened.

We were on our way to John’s funeral when this tiny little puppy, in such immanent danger, came our way. We stopped because we had to. The traffic was heavy and she would not have survived trying to finish her journey across the road. I privately thought, “What in the world in she doing in the middle of the road? How did she survive to get there? Well, as a result of her rescue, no small measure of joy was ours on this tragically sad day. It was truly uplifting to find her at this moment in our lives.

I gave the puppy to our son, Alex, with the comment that it was, probably, a last gift from John. Alex named her, “Rosie”. And I often wondered how he came up with that name. Perhaps, I thought, it was the “thorny” personality the puppy possessed. She was pretty snotty when she was young and would snap at (I called it: schooling) anyone she was displeased with.

I remember how we could not get this little emaciated puppy (her first name was weenie, she was so thin) to eat anything. I took her to our favorite veterinarian. He examined her and explained that she would not eat because she was full of crickets and grasshoppers. That had been her diet and her means of survival. So he provided a formula to give her. Later, for over a year, I would notice her stalking the grasshoppers when she was outside on the lawn. She was good at catching them, waiting until they would hop and land on the ground exactly three times and then catching them.

There is always another small heart waiting to save someone – waiting for love. Please, adopt one in my memory.

God, in His infinite mercy, did not save this precious puppy – He enabled me to do that. And, as a result, it is my belief that God saved me. He gave me the unmeasurable joy of this wonderful friend for so very many years. And on that well traveled road, Rosie resurrected my hope and filled my spirit. I found salvation through the innocent eyes of this small friend, with a large heart, who became my constant and loving companion.

No, I was not alone in saving a life. For in truth, she became my savior. And, in a very real sense, one of the reasons for the continued existence of this school, which has saved others.

Yes, with the first time I held her in my arms, she gave a new meaning to this world of mine. She came into my life and filled my heart with special moments that to this day, last. She filled my days with so much love, that anywhere I went, I was never lonely. And as I reached to feel the warmth of her presence, she was always there. My, how my arms begged her to stay, for one more hour, one more day.

From life’s illusions I came to a time when I felt that I really didn’t know life at all. And then prayer became a promise, and faith blossomed into the most unlikely of appearances. And suddenly, I absolutely knew and felt in the very fiber of my being, that I was deeply, deeply loved. God bequeathed someone to care for and love, children from above and in the depths of my sorrow, a quirky, funny, loving, tiny puppy dog.

Perhaps, finding Rosie was not a chance encounter. From this miraculous experience, and others, I have learned not to question the way God works and how mysterious His ways are . . . .  “God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform”.

And I am brought to my knees, in tears of thanksgiving.

I placed a special marker to let the world know where I buried my heart. But in a very real sense, Rosie will always be with me. As we find in 1 Corinthians 13, “Love is eternal. . . There are faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

“There is a land of the living
And a land of the dead,
And the bridge is love,
The only survival,
The only meaning.”
                         –  Thornton Wilder

No. We can never say goodbye to Love.

Our Trip last week to the Texas Civil War Museum

What a great lesson we were blessed with on the the topic of the Victorian Lady at the Texas Civil War Museum. Our wonderful docent entertained the girls (and the boys, some of whom asked to be dressed as Victorian Men).

Kylie becomes a true “Southern Belle” during our visit to the Civil War Museum.

ON THIS FRIDAY, FEB. 7

We will meet at 9:30 a.m. at Half-Price Books, located at 475 Sherry Lane, north of Ridgmar Mall –Telephone: 817-732-4111. At approximately 11:30 a.m. we will travel to the FOOD COURT in the Ridgmar Mall to enjoy lunch. Following lunch, we will walk to the RAVE 13 THEATRE located in the Mall at 2300 Green Oaks Road, telephone (817) 566-0025, to enjoy the highly acclaimed new movie Monument Men, MPAA Rating PG-13 for Historical Smoking, Some Images of War Violence. Run Time: 127 minutes and starting at 1:00 p.m. Younger students may view another film with the blessing of Mrs. A.

PICK UP will be at the Theater at 2:30 p.m.

Synopsis: During World War II, a group of art scholars and museum directors infiltrates enemy territory to retrieve stolen masterpieces before the Nazis dispose of them.

The starting time may change, please be patient. Dr. A may become anxious but popcorn will help.

Emergency Telephone 682-777-1908

If you arrive late, we shall have departed with your child(ren) and will return to school. Please call if you will be late.

Students are NOT to leave the bookstore, food court or theater without the approval of Dr. A (wake him gently with the smell of warm popcorn if necessary).

FINANCIAL: We have been told Tickets are $5.00 but this may be incorrect – please pay at the Box Office. Please provide funds for a good book and for lunch. Refreshments: Yes!

Uniform pants with a belt & red monogrammed school shirts are required.

PARENTS / FRIENDS / NEIGHBORS, are invited to participate on our trips.

IMPORTANT DATES:
Feb. 1 Tuition Deposits were Due for 2014-15
Feb. 17 (Mon.) President’s Day Holiday
Mar. 10-14 Spring Break Holidays
Mar. 21 Texas Indian Market and Southwest Showcase (Arlington)

Mary Alice also loved     becoming a Southern Belle

   And Rylee said,                     “What about ME!”

We truly enjoyed learning about dress and attire of the old deep south.