My Marriage

I had been in Lexington, Kentucky, since I was 17 years old.  That is when I graduated from high school and went to Lexington to go to business college.  When this story unfolds, I am 27 years old. 

While in Lexington, I always kept myself busy.  I was either going to school, working, or taking some young people somewhere.  I knew several families in Lexington that I visited from time to time, and some of the young people in these families would go with me on trips just to have fun.  We would go to the mountains, attend a fair, or whatever we could just to have fun, especially in the summer time.

As I grew older, I felt the need to settle down and do something besides have fun with these "kids."  I had met a young lady named Shirley Maddox when I first came to Lexington.  She manifested that she liked me the first time she met me.  I, however, was not interested in dating or marriage--I had things I wanted to do.

But as I was growing older, I decided that, if I were to settle down with a wife, it would probably be with Shirley.  Later I was told that she prayed for me every night with some of the girls who went to school with her at Lexington Baptist College.  She prayed that some day I would ask her to marry me.

In 1970 I had moved back to Falmouth, Kentucky, to live with my mother after my father's death.  Each weekend I would go back to Lexington to visit friends.

One day I had a young man with me, and we had gone somewhere to do something fun, as usual.  Before taking him home, I drove down a particular street and pulled over and parked.  He asked why I stopped.  I said, "Do you see that house across that yard there?"  He said he did.  I told him that the next Saturday I was going to go to that house, knock on the door, and ask Shirley for a date.  He had known me for several years, and he said, "You are not!"  I said, "Oh, yes I am." 

Sure enough, I did just that (although I did call her first).  I went the next Saturday and picked Shirley up, and we went somewhere to eat, I think.  From that day forward, we saw each other every weekend.  We loved to go to the Lexington Cemetery in the garden and sit and talk until it was time to leave.  Many times we would go to church services.

After a few weeks I asked her when she wanted to get married--because I knew she did.  I suggested my birthday, Sept. 23.  She said, "This year?"  Is said, "of course."  Then, of course, she said yes and got very excited.  This was in April of 1972.  We were married at Ashland Avenue Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, at 1:00 PM.  Bro. Johnny Thompson, my pastor, married us.  Bro. Bob Jones sang at the wedding.   I turned 28 years old that day.

I had gone to Lexington Baptist College with Shirley for five years, and we both graduated from that school.  I had known her for more than eight years before we married, so I knew almost everything about her.  She was a wonderful witness for Jesus Christ and a good Christian.  She made a wonderful pastor's wife--just ask the ladies who knew her to see how much she loved the Lord..

There are other stories that I will tell in other chapters, but Shirley and I lived together for 30 years, and our love grew throughout the years for each other.  We had three boys.  Then  Shirley departed this life due to a rare disease called Amyloidosis.  She died on May 21, 2003.