For this is the will of the Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, John 6:40
Rarely do we remember the exact time we met a friend, or what she was wearing or the look on her face, but I remember all those things and many more about meeting my (then) future friend-- Teresa Wilson.
Teresa, the granddaughter of Vera and Jim Dingman, was living at Sunshine Acres Children’s Home, Mesa Arizona, which had been started some 25 years ago by her grandparents to give a home to children who needed a home.
I had been hired as the nurse to these children and was ecstatically happy. to be working and eventually living on the grounds of this well known and equally respected Christian Children’s Home.
It was 1976 or 77 (When exactly were you born Joy-smile?) as Teresa was holding her newly born second daughter “Joy Melody” in her arms. The reason I remember the look on her face, was because it was by no means the most welcoming, but rather one of deep misgiving, not of me personally .but rather of what I, as a medical person, would introduce into her life and the lives of the children.
Teresa and her young husband Joshua, were not only people of great Faith but were more into eating a healthy diet than anyone I have ever known. Natural medicine of herbs and vitamins was their chosen treatment, as opposed to antibiotics, antihistamines, etc.
----- Hence her mistrust of the new nurse, whoever that might be.
--------------------Joy -Teresa - Rebecca- (as I knew them at Sunshine Acres)
Rebecca and Joy with new baby sister Angela and MOM
We were so very different in many ways: I, a cradle Catholic-- Teresa, raised in the Pentecostal tradition. A candy bar and airy white Wonder bread was my staple diet while such things never touched her lips. Never in a million years would either of us have imagined becoming friends, let alone dear friends of some 30+ years, but God had other plans .
Just a few of the many memories that come to mind are: Teresa would make fresh carrot juice for me and deliver it when I was ill, which was frequently in those days.. I always thanked her, but never drank it, with excuses I would drink it later. Finally she caught on and insisted I drink it in front of her. What a surprise for me to realize how truly yummy fresh carrot juice could taste (smile).
Then there was the time Teresa was stung by a bee and came running into the “Health Hut” to see if I had chewable Vitamin C, which I did,. She then proceeded to chew huge quantities as a natural antihistamine. It. worked !.
We both enjoyed dancing and took a class at the Franciscan Renewal Center (The Casa) in Phoenix Arizona, on Liturgical dance (which for those of you who do not know is simply praising God thru dance. ). As we traveled to and fro, it gave us an opportunity to really talk and get to know each other on a deep personal level.
The Liturgical Dance “Praise You Father” was first danced at a catholic church in Scottsdale, AZ. by Teresa, myself and the woman who choreographed this beautiful movement in grace ( as coined by a friend of both Teresa and myself, Mary Johns).
Just look at a previous blog entitled “Lay Mission Helpers Come a Callin’” and see this same dance performed so reverently by three lovely Ugandan women.
Since the first time Teresa and I performed this dance we have danced it together in many churches, including the chapel at Sunshine Acres Children’s Home, which was, initially, quite a scandal in this pentecostal church, but God working thru us opened the eyes of the skeptical to yet another form of praising God.
------------------Praise the Lord with timbrel and dance,
------------------Praise him with strings and pipe.,
------------------Praise him with sounding cymbals,
------------------Praise him with clanging cymbals,
------------------Let everything that has breath
------------------Praise the Lord! Alleluia.
Psalm 150: 4-6
Many women have performed this dance at Heartsong Retreats, World AIDS Day Events , Memorials as well as Weddings of friends and friends of friends. .Even Rebecca Wilson Southard, Teresa’s daughter and my friend, has performed this dance with me.
. Yet NOTHING could ever compare to the vision of Teresa in a long flowing white dress as she raised her arms and heart in praise to God!
Teresa- Thailand 2001
When I left Sunshine Acres to spend the summer in Oregon, before embarking on being Nanny to Lindsay Wagner’s first born son, Dorian, Teresa made this journey across the country with me and my dog, Jesse (who later became the Wilson’s family dog back at the Children’s home for many more years).
What an adventure we had;: Teresa was the navigator and went on and on about Big Sur in California and how much I would love it, then proceeded to misdirect us and we missed it altogether-Ha.
We later realized there were fields of wildflowers that never would have been enjoyed had we not gone the road less traveled..
We visited Sue Alexander, who we had both known from the Children’s home, Teresa’s brother Mark and got to sleep in his boat at Pier 39 (when I was exactly 39 years old) in San Francisco, also visited Chuck and Grace Dingman, Teresa’s uncle and my friend, went to see the movie ET for the first time and visited with the then large –with-child Lindsay and met her mom, Marilyn. Both have remained friends for all these years.
About 10 years. later,
following my move to
Arkansas, Teresa and Joshua were able to attend my 50
th Birthday Celebration, a weekend o f .“ Prayer, Praise and Partying” . Arriving early and staying late gave us special time to spend together and they were able to meet some of my new friends and celebrate with some of our mutual old friends. It was a glorious occasion and I have the video to prove it.
Joshua and Teresa are both master musicians and we took full advantage of their skills and range of musical expertise from a prayer service on my deck to a Jazz duet.
Then in 2001 Teresa accompanied her daughter Rebecca and
me to
Thailand where Rebecca and I volunteered in an AIDS Orphanage, while Teresa shopped and made friends. Every evening, following yet another Thai massage, we’d have tea exchanging stories of our day while Teresa introduced us to the varied
acquaintance she had
befriended
that day .
Our last week was spent on a breathtakingly gorgeous island, off Puckett Island, where Teresa drank coconut milk direct from the coconut. We never wore shoes (even for dress up dinners of local fish, we walked on the beach, swam in the clear blue ocean and perhaps my favorite time of the day---watching Teresa and Rebecca do Yoga! What an extraordinary site, mother and daughter in poses I could never even imagine, right on the beach as the ocean tide came in. Many of you may recall the photo kept visible in my home till I came here to Uganda.
I
visited with Teresa in 2006 as I was traveling to California for Mission School, then again as I was traveling back to Arkansas to wrap things up before embarking on this mission as a Lay Mission Helper. But that was not my final time with Teresa, as she arrived in
Arkansas via air about the same time I arrived via car, to obtain some laser therapy to ease the pain that her body was experiencing by that time. Since the weather was inclement (snow and ice, if I recall) I was unable to see her until the night before I flew out of town. Dear friends Brian Cook and James Anderson (who preceded Teresa to the heavens only weeks earlier) hosted a farewell party in which I said a final farewell to both Teresa and James, visited with all my blessed
Arkansas friends, hugged Teresa’s daughter Rebecca yet one more time, till I return in 2010.
---------Feb 07--Our last visit --Marie, Rebecca Wilson Southard ( who looks so much like her Mom with her hair darkened) with son Ari on her lap and Teresa
This tells of the craniological time I spent with Teresa, but tells little of the person, the friend she was to me and to so many others.. As I have said before Teresa was a woman of great Faith. But to an even greater degree---- Teresa was a woman of miracles!
I once gifted her with a bumper sticker that read “I don’t just believe in miracles, I RELY on them” We both agreed it had been made just for her.
One of her favorite statements “We need two small miracles and one really large one to get thru such and such”, always put a smile in my heart. I would say ”Teresa, I didn’t know miracles came in sizes, isn’t a miracle just a miracle?” smile
There are many who will speak of Teresa’s accomplishment and they were many: a classical musician and teacher, an awesome wife and mother of three remarkable young women, a gardener extraordinaire; flowers-(. specifically roses) and vegetables.
Teresa was the massage therapist you’d dreamed existed, made jewelry, hair barrettes and aroma therapy oils and makeup, all from organically grown products..
…. These are just a few of the things she did, yet - it is not who she was.
Breast Cancer may be what physically took her life, but anyone who knew her also knew .. that: ---- Jesus---- who she loved and emulated with her whole being, awaited her company with outstretched arms.
.
------------------TERESA---A WOMAN OF MIRACLES
.
