Spirituality Column #764

July 6, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

‘How About Tomorrow?’

By Bob Walters

After meeting Pam at long-time, beloved E91 pastor Russ Blowers’ funeral on a Thursday (see last week’s column #763, scroll below), we next spoke after that Sunday’s church service.

As mentioned last week, our E91 church in 2007 was huge.  Pam and I attended the same weekly service for probably five years but had never met.  Needing help informing the music ministry about Russ’s online tribute website (Russ Stories link), I recognized Pam from both the orchestra and the choir; a female drummer who was also a six-foot tall blond alto in the choir line was hard to miss.

I wasn’t “looking for her,” specifically.  But when I saw her outside the sanctuary about an hour before the funeral – she was to play tympani with the brass ensemble and I was a pall bearer – I approached, introduced myself, and asked for help passing the word about the Russ tribute site.  It was a quick, concise, and pleasant exchange … but maybe not as random or “chance” as it seemed at the time.

I say we still hadn’t actually “met” because at the funeral there was neither the time nor, understandably, the inclination for small talk.  But Sunday was different. 

After Sunday’s service Pam found me – I always sat near the front a few rows back on the right side, usually with Russ – and said she had emailed the tribute site info to the choir and orchestra members and it was well-received. Mission accomplished.

Chatting in the pews up near the pipe organ console, and in no particular order, we discovered of each other that we both adored Russ, she was an English teacher and I was a writer, that we both had strong (and fond) multi-generational vacation roots in northern Michigan, that we had graduated high school the same year (she near Grand Rapids, Mich., me in Kokomo, Ind.), she was a life-long Christian, a preacher’s kid (PK), and had been at E91 for 27 years, while I was a newbie, baptized at E91 Nov. 18, 2001.

Oh, did I mention that the Sunday when we “met” was Nov. 18, 2007?

We also learned we each had two mostly-grown kids from long-term marriages that had each, ironically enough, ended in May of 2005 with uncontested divorces.  We also learned that each of us had ongoing challenges (family, work, etc.) but we became fast friends and married a year and a half later, Monday, June 22, 2009.

Why a Monday?  Well, we have dear friend and retired pastor John Samples to thank for that one.  I had popped the question to Pam three days earlier on Friday, June 19, just before we headed over to the annual E91 music ministry end-of-season dinner.  Pam had been in the choir and orchestra for nearly 30 years so it became an especially great party for us with dear friends who all cheered, “It’s about time!”   

We were not planning a long engagement, and for logistical reasons marrying “sooner” would be far better than “later.”  Sunday, June 21, at church we approached John about scheduling a time to marry us in the coming weeks.  He pulled out his date book, frowned, and said that starting Tuesday of that week the next several weeks were full of travel and he was otherwise booked.  He just didn’t see how he could work it in.

Then he smiled, looked up at us and said, “How about tomorrow?”

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) needs one more week to tell this story properly.  There was still a huge Russ-related and not-random surprise Pam was not telling Bob.