A Flawed Legacy - 35

It was here (Orlando) that I discovered the Good Samaritan Coffee House and the "crew" that kept it moving, day in and day out.  I met Craig Marlatt, the "little dynamo" who had founded it and kept it moving ahead on the strength of his personality and the help of some good friends.  Everywhere I went, people seem to know all about Craig and his background which included time in prison.  (As I write, I discovered him again, still living in Florida, still very much the family man - and a very large family now.  We exchanged e-mails and I was pleased to tell him of the impact his Mother made on my life.  I believe she was a widow and drove school buses for a living, counting her passengers as being a huge part of her life.  She was an inspiration to all who ever crossed her path.

It was always intriguing to me, the impact of the Rescue Mission nearby.  I used to stand in their lines just to meet transients such as I was, just to talk about our mutual experiences.  Of course, my main interest was to invite them to the Coffee House to discover how "life in Christ" was far better than merely, "life" on the streets.  Along the way, I met a young girl who would have a large impact on my life.  It was very hot day and here was this young girl wearing a  beautiful, but very heavy overcoat. She needed to get away from that crowd and one day she appeared at the Coffee House, and was befriended by a slightly older gal and they became best of friends.  One day, she asked me if I had a drivers license, that she needed someone to drive her car and take the two of them to the airport.  Her name was Maryann and I never dreamed that she would, later on, become my wife.  We got lost coming back from the air-port and in the process, became good friends.  On Valentine's Day (1982), church friends invited Maryann and I to their "Sweetheart's Ball" and I wound up singing, "Let My Call You Sweetheart" and embarrassed her, she said, but it wasn't much later, while I was driving her to a revival meeting at the First Baptist Church she blurted out, "I'm in love with you, really!!"  I was not prepared for that.

I had decided to go out the Frank Constantino's "camp" for newly released State prisoners where the idea seemed to be that we could help these guys get acclimated to their freedom.  It was a great idea - I recently read that it still is, but to me with a college degree and solid work experience behind me, I found it to be a chaotic mess.  Frank had great ideas and it seemed to me, so did everyone else, so much so that I became disallusioned, or perhaps it was mt new found love for Maryann and my hopes for a better future.  We decided to get married.

She had been boarding with an older woman who happened to know of lady who had been "wintering" in Florida but was leaving for the summer, offering her house, rent-free, and suggested it would be a good place for us to start our marriage.  It was, but it really wasn't a good time for us.  What I was about to discover that she was still "hooked on" psychiatric medicine and was really angry with her psychiatrist.  I will never know - for certain, but my answer to her dilemma was to just stop the pills. Shortly afterwards, she panicked and wanted to start taking them again.  I convinced her that all she needed was proof everything was going to be OK and took her to the local hospital, to an ER doctor who told her that there was nothing wrong with her vital signs, she was not going to die and she calmed down and I thought, she had won a battle that had been raging for years.

Well, I thought it was, but most of us know, there are "ups and downs" in marriages, especially when both parties had experienced unsuccessful marriages in their past.  We had our share.  I was moving on in years and one of my problems was the fact, I had no real idea of what our future would hold, based on my more recent work experiences.  By now, I had been away from "career" interests for over five years and it troubled me that I could not find anyone who could become interested in the "possibilities" I had to offer.  Inwardly, I was becoming more and more frustrated.  That was a burden on our marriage and it didn't help that Maryann still seemed to have memories of the problems that followed her previous life. She and her husband had two beautiful sons that she adored and her husband seemed to have eyes on other women.  That marriage ended in a divorce and reasons to believe she had mental problems.  That stigma had followed her to Florida where her father had moved - after leaving her Mother to marry another woman and that was a another "problem" to add to her concerns.  I didn't really help.

The fact that I had merely stepped out of my former marriage and left some bewildered children did not help either, only that was not the problem with Maryann and I.  I thought it was the fact I had not found a place for my skills and abilities and finally, when she would not agree to leave Orlando, I did.  I went to Atlanta and as if there were forces in my life beyond my control, I found a job with plenty of potential and an employer who loved to teach me everything I would ever need to know if I stayed and took over the business when he retired.  I was, in fact, more excited than I had been for years.  I came back to Orlando for Christmas, shared my experience with Maryann, hoping, in fact, believing, she would go with me to the apartment I had discovered that I thought she would love, but she had no intentions of leaving an area where she was comfortable, to start over.

I began to realize, I was the ultimate optimist and she was just the opposite.  But I loved her and stayed but everything seemed to get away from me.  We loved the church, used to delight in signing the songs we loved as we drove to and from church.  I was happier then than anytime in my life.  When one Pastor left town, we found another church and when it moved beyond the "family" we had come to love, we found another.  And we had good friends.  Earlier in our marriage, we had met this gal who had been to Dallas, TX, and met this guy, Bob George, who really understood the Bible and convinced we should attend one of his seminars.  So we did and in route we met the guy who would marry the gal who had encouraged us to go.  The four of us became the very best of friends and although Maryann has passed away, the three of us are together, in spirit at least.  They still live in Orlando, I have moved on. 

Our marriage did not survive.  I finally moved away, this time to Tennessee where the miracle f all miracles would happen to me, but we remained good friends, thanks to the Postal services.  Along the way, she met another fellow, another nice guy I had to agree and so, we divorced.  It did not mean that I stopped loving her.  I just set her free and was so glad that I did as she developed cancer and would eventually pass away.   I wound up with a huge hole in my heart. 

A Flawed Legacy - 34

Tampa was nice, Tampa was hot and I was really not dressed for the heat.  My bag was back at the bus station and I was looking for a cool place to spend the rest of the day.  At least I found what was known as the "Mission" on the streets, but it wasn't what I believed a Mission ought to be.  It consisted of two young girls, volunteers from a nearby church, who knew about Sunday services and that was about it. They turned up their noses at the thought of "any body" working in "this heat".  I headed back to the bus station.  One guy had told me that Orlando had a "neat" Mission.  So, I caught another bus.

There was a bathroom on board and a good place to change clothes.  It was just as hot in Orlando.

I asked about the "Mission" and could find no one who seemed to know anything about one in Orlando, even the Police who were wondering about me.  They stopped me and asked for ID.  "From Texas, eh? What are you doing in Orlando?" and then before I could answer, "Where were you last night?"  It was a good thing that I had kept my copy of my bus ticket.  There had been a rape in downtown Orlando last night and the witnesses had told the Police, "He looked like a transient."  

They told me about the "rescue" Mission and I headed there, being told I would have to wait in line to get a bed  and it was a long line, in the heat   I was really not interested in a bed,  I was interested in finding friends on the streets.  One of the guys ahead of me asked if I knew about the "Coffee" house that was nearby.  "They don't have beds, but they do have good coffee and good music."  I got out of the line and headed for the Coffee house, which was open, even though it was still morning.

I walked in and found some guys sorting through food donations and old clothes.  I asked about the music and was told that it started around Seven in the evening, but they did not have any coffee.  I left to discover more about downtown Orlando.  The first place I found had "rooms" to rent and I signed up for a week.  "Are you sure you want a week?" the clerk asked.  "Yes, of course.  Why do you ask?" "We don't get many white guys in this place" was his answer and I assured him, I wanted to stay a week.  I headed along the same street and came to the Orange Blossom Trail that I had heard about when we were coming back from Miami a couple of years before.  "That is where the 'action' is' I was told then, so I headed South to see what I could see.  Sure enough, I came across a couple of 'ladies' who wondered why I was walking.  I gave them some 'smart aleck' answer and then asked them if they knew Jesus.  "I just knew he was a 'preacher boy' when we saw him coming down the street," one told the other one, "Where are your 'tracts', preacher man?"

I ignored the question and then told them I was just passing through town.  "Any chance there is a place close where we could get a beer?" I asked and they pointed to a place down the street.  "I'll be heading there and if you ladies would like to have a beer with me, come on along."  It did not surprise me that it took awhile, but they eventually joined me.  They had to be in their early twenties and one thing led to another until I had to ask, "Why?"  What did surprise me was that the younger of the two had a tale to tell and when she paused, the other one shared hers.  They had a "man" and I would learn, he lived in the same place I had just rented a room.   That did not surprise me, either.  "I will tell you what I can do if you are interested.  There was a hotel I passed across the street from the Rescue Mission.  Give me a couple of hours and I will rent you a room in that hotel.  Just give me the names you would be are using." They looked at one another and then wrote something down on a piece of paper they got from the bar tender.  It was their names and i told them, their room would be available by 4PM.

They left and the bartender laughed as he had obviously overheard our conversation.  "Man, that was cool and you get to shack up with them for the rest of the night, eh?"   "No sir, I probably will never see either of them again, but if I do, I bet they will be interested in the "Jesus" who they will discover was the name of the guy who rented their room for them."  They were gone from the street when I left the bar and I was glad about that.  If I was to stay in Orlando, I didn't want a reputation of dealing with hookers.

I guess I walked a couple of miles along the "OBT" which was what the 'natives' seemed to call it and when I got tired, I took a cab back to the hotel I had mentioned to the 'ladies'.  With a tip in advance, I had no problem of paying for the room in advance for my "cousins" who would get there about 4PM. He was really surprised when I told him that I was paying for a week in advance.

Then I headed back to the Coffee house and sat down outside of the door that was locked.  I knew that others would be joining me and it didn't take long.  My clothes were not new, but they had been used and I knew that fact would help others to join me.  All I did was ask a lot of questions and listen.  When they told me they thought they were out of coffee, I excused myself and headed for the restaurant across the tracks.

On my way, I took a $50 bill I had hidden in my socks and asked for the manager when I walked in.  "I want to buy a case of coffee," I told him,  "and have you deliver it to the Coffee house down the street. Have your man tell them that it came from Jesus, when He had heard they were out, OK?   It was a deal and I walked the other way to be certain that no one would believe it came from me.