The Story
Of Us

In the Dimension Of Heaven

As you walked along the path you noticed that the flowers swayed in time with music. Music unlike anything you had heard before. One could walk right over the flowers, and they were never damaged. It was like walking on love. If you wanted to pick a flower you could do so and immediately a new one would grow in its place. Everything in this place seemed more real than Earth and one feels more alive than they have ever been.

The colors were mystical when looking in one direction, and in the other, so vibrant and diverse unlike anything seen on Earth. Such gorgeous color – almost like velvet, yet at times liquid and full of light. Light came from every direction and seemed to be absorbed by everything it touched. Every flower on Earth along with many never seen or encountered before was in full display at all times and the colors and arrangements were truly magnificent. It filled your soul with such pleasure, an awareness that love included beauty, for it could caress the soul.

The tinkling of the bells was in perfect harmony with the swaying of the lush, vivid emerald, green grass. Everything seemed synchronized as if all one could feel was an orchestra of sounds of joy and beauty beyond any words to describe. Forests of symmetrical trees climbing so high evoked feelings of majesty and awe. As one walked through the many, seemingly endless pathways, all one could see, feel, hear, smell and taste filled their spirit with immense love and appreciation.

Walking through this place of love, you may feel that you have existed forever. The leaves of trees made sounds of chimes as they brushed against one another with the pleasant breeze. If you picked a fruit from the many trees close to you, another would grow in its place. There is no death in this dimension of heaven. It may be called other things by other people, but it is all the same. The air around one is infused with the most delectable of aromas that sing of peace, love and contentment.

Robbie

This first memory remains embedded in Robbie’s five-year-old brain and will impact him for the rest of his life. The sheer beauty of the setting screams for recognition but is hijacked by the blatant terror of what happened to him.

This would have been like heaven except for the loud, disdaining voice that shouts at him from the edge of the river behind the rocks. It is like a dark shadow in human form with it’s own distinctive grimace and harshness in his voice. “Come here boy! What are you doing just sitting there? You should be swimming just like your brothers!” Robbie hesitantly and very slowly goes toward this enormous monster saying, “but I don’t know how to swim”. “Get over here. I will teach you how to swim”.

Robbie wants to cry or at least dig himself deeper in the mud but he doesn’t dare as he stands before this “teacher”. “You just walk into the water and start to move your hands and legs. It’s so simple any baby could do it. That’s it! Now go swim”. Robbie is afraid to move, saying only to himself, “what is the greater danger – what is right in front of me or the deep river behind me?” He didn’t have time to answer his own question. Quicker than his friend Charlie could run, he feels himself being picked up roughly in the arms of his soon -to- be permanent tormentor and with a vicious cast is now in the middle of the river well over his head. “That will teach you how to swim boy”.

Robbie has little time to think or do anything. He starts to sink and he gulps for air. His face shows only terror but his mind says very distinctly to him, “you are going to die”. As he sinks lower and is pulled away by the current, he is very sure of this and wants to be to be in the arms of his mother, the one person he knows really loves him.

Robbie begins to slowly sink deeper as his body eases itself into acceptance so that he is hardly moving at all now. He still is fascinated as he sees things with his open eyes that are new to him and even spark a sense of wonder. With an unexpected jerk on his left arm, Robbie sees the face of one of his older brothers, Adam, there to save him. All of his older brothers had seen what had happened and Adam was the one who got to him first. All of them were familiar with the dark beast who quite characteristically just turned his back and walked away, not doing anything. They knew him as their father, a man so self-absorbed that he couldn’t see the goodness around him. This memory and many similar others would emotionally haunt Robbie throughout his life – until it didn’t.

Jeanette

It was Christmas Eve in 1958 and Jeanette had just recently turned 10. Christmas was always so very special around the house with the aromas of favorite foods and cookies swirling through the house, the promise of sledding and making snow creatures and the many lights Dad put up around the outside of the house, twinkling with excitement as a mirror to the kids’ joy. Josh was expecting a new bike and Jeanette a huge stuffed animal tiger that she had really wanted. It was always such a good time.

In her house, there was a dining room next to the kitchen and on the side was a big chair with a telephone next to it. She was told by her Gram that her father was on the phone and wanted to talk to her. This seemed unusual especially since it was Christmas Eve and she was ready for all the fun to begin. She listened as her world began to end. Dad explained that he wouldn’t be coming home again. Jeanette thought, “What? This couldn’t be happening”. What does he mean by the word ‘divorce’? She felt as if all the life energy in her body was slowly seeping out of her through her feet like an ocean wave retreating back into the sea. Jeanette didn’t fully understand but she knew her feelings and knew her world was shattered. Her stomach began to rumble as this new reality began to sink in. Jeanette started throwing up violently and just couldn’t stop. She was crying horrifically and loudly between bouts of vomiting. Gram knew she had to get her out of this environment so arranged to send her and Josh to their aunt and uncle’s house out in the country. Her Mom also thought that this was the best course of action.

To Jeanette, this then was the end of her life as she knew it. She stayed in this loving retreat for over a week with their two huge great danes and went for some walks in the woods by herself to explore and think. She heard the racoons noisily getting into trashcans at night.

This was the first of many major traumatic events that would shape Jeanette as she learned to live with adversity and how to survive it.