Remembering Marvin
The story below received today about the fisherman reminded me of Marvin, my late Mother's fisherman friend.
The fact that Marvin had lost a leg in an auto accident never stopped him from his love of fishing or
from helping others. He had an outgoing personality in spite of the many odd things he would
say or do at times. Personal grooming was no big deal to Marvin as it was to others, but he sure
knew how to clean and dress a fish. He seemed a little odd to most folks, but had a heart of gold when
you really got to know him.
Marvin was a blessing who helped keep my Mother going for several more years when it looked like
her life was over because of her many health problems.
His outgoing personality and willingness to be a friend made my Mom overlook the fact that he was a little careless in other areas and not like most of the people she had been around.
Her small apartment in the retirement center where they were both residents became the place where he would spend his spare time when not fishing.
Together they would sing, pray, and share memories of days gone by.
He would retire to his own room at night to sleep in his favorite old chair.
You could count on Marvin to be knocking on her door bright and early the next morning, just to make sure she was doing alright
and see if she was up to going fishing.
Many a day Marvin would come to church with his pants hemmed with fishing line and the smell of fish bait
which could be detected 6 seats away. When he shook your hand you might just be pulled over the pew
as he shook hands with the same force he might reel in a huge catfish.
He was always at least 10 minutes late but never failed to shake hands with most everyone when he entered the
Sanctuary, on his own time schedule. His Church family loved him too and he knew he could attend "just as he was" and be
welcomed.
With his artificial limb that was not very modern, he could still climb fences to get to any available pond
and was willing to help an "antique Grandma" on a walker somehow make it over the fences too.
One night when our Son was small and was sick with a fever, they kept him as we were in a Revival .
When we went to pick him up after Church, we noticed he was as pale as "a ghost", lol., and asked
him what was wrong. He was rather speechless but then finally told us what was wrong.
He had wanted to watch "Night Rider" on television but Marvin wanted to watch something else, probably
about fishing. So, Marvin took off his artificial wooden leg and laid it in front of the television set.
Needless to say, there were no thoughts of changing channels that night after that!
We still get amused when we recall some of the humorous things he would do, without giving a second thought.
Together my Mother and Marvin made quite a sight when they shared their gravy & biscuit at McDonalds and waited around for more free Sr. Citizen's coffee.
Carefully they would split the one biscuit and gravy and you would think they were blessing the
'loaves and fish' as it was always just enough for both
of them and for only .99 cents! The other patrons at McDonalds got a mini sermon when the biscuit
was broke and blessed.
When his leg would become infected from the old prosthesis he wore, he would take it off and wait for it to heal enough to get back to the ole fishing hole which was his life when he wasn't at
Church. He was his own doctor it seemed and would try every natural
remedy he had ever heard about. And, it would be a surprise, but they would usually work for him!
Church dinners and family holiday meals always included Marvin. We always enjoyed
having him with us as he had no family around to be with.
He would always claim a "turkey leg" and ask someone to 'hurry up and bless it" ' so he could enjoy his pick of the "bird", as he would say.
He would "pick and remove his favorite piece" before
the turkey was ever carved. Holidays were an exciting time for him and he loved a family atmosphere.
One Christmas each family member received a big bath
towel from the Dollar Store wrapped in colorful paper held together with duct tape.
It was one of our best gifts received as he had saved money from his small disability check
to get each one of us, "something personal."
We always gave him a small box of gifts at Christmas and
especially "fishing lures and tackle".
The sparkle in his eyes didn't appear when he would open first his much needed
"grooming items or clothes" we would give him , although he was very thankful.
However, when he got to the fishing stuff, you could see the gleam in his eyes and hear his loud expressions of" thanks ya'll, ....ya'll just don't know how much I needed this," all through the house.
His birthday was also a happy time for Him as we always saw that he received a gift he needed plus of
course, more fishing gear.
When Mother became unable to bend down and put her shoes on early each morning, Marvin would come
down to her room in the retirement center and put them on for her that she might be able to
get out just 'one more day' to go see "if the fish were biting."
When my Mother became unable to walk or get around, she had to enter a Nursing Home as her
bones were crumbling and she had other health problems.
She had held on as long as she could in being independent with help, and made the final decision which would have been a hard transition
without Marvin to help us keep her happy.
Each night Marvin would make his rounds and stay for hours until her bedtime.
They would draw pictures, write stories, and he would tell her all about his fishing adventures of the day, many times
drawing pictures of fish or other wildlife.
Then he would pray for her and leave until the next evening.
Although he was several years younger, it made no difference to either as their friendship was from
the heart and he had been accepted into her family as a friend.
When Mother passed away 10 years ago this March, we saw "an old fisherman" cry as he sadly walked
away from the Hospital after losing his best friend.
He had kept saying over & over that she wasn't going to die;
but the Good Lord knew it was her appointment on that beautiful Sunday Morning, her going home day.
No one looked sadder than Marvin at the Funeral and all thoughts of fishing seemed to disappear from his life for the time being as he said his last farewell to her.
Marvin moved on shortly after she passed away, and no one
seems to know exactly where he is now; but we believe he went to a town where
a relative resides.
Not too long ago I found a song they had sung together along with another old
gentleman who recently passed away called, "This World is
Not My Home, I'm Only Passing Through." Though the song was off key and the old guitar was
not quiet in tune, it still had a beautiful sound which I know must have pleased the Lord too
when they sang it with their whole heart.
Just like them, we too are only passing through.
May we be a friend to all and look for the good in each one that comes from the heart,
not from the outer appearance or maybe one's different ways.
One day I know we will see them again, and they may just be sitting
around that 'River of Life' near Heaven's Harbor.
I'm sure Marvin is planning on fish being in heaven, and of course they will both
have brand new perfect legs to walk around the streets of gold in heaven!
As that message said, "thank you Lord for old fishermen!"
The Lord surely does look at the heart and not as man looks.
1 Samuel 16-7b.
Blessings,
Jo Ann
J. P.'s Inspirations
[L.H.L.S] The Old Fisherman
P.T.L....Thank you Lord for "old Fishermen"!
"Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through ever circumstance."
1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT)
The Old Fisherman
Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to out patients at the clinic. One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awful looking man. "Why, he's hardly taller than my eight-year-old," I thought as I stared at the stooped, shriveled body. But the appalling thing was his face-lopsided from swelling, red and raw. Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, "Good evening. I've come to see if you've a room for just one night. I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there's no bus 'til morning." He told me he'd been hunting for a room since noon but with no success, no one seemed to have a room. "I guess it's my face, I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments..."
For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me: "I could sleep in this rocking chair on the porch.
My bus leaves early in the morning." I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch.
I went inside and finished getting supper.
When we were ready, I asked the old man if he would join us.
"No thank you. I have plenty." And he held up a brown paper bag.
When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the porch to talk with him a few minutes.
It didn't take a long time to see that this old man had an oversized heart crowded into that tiny body.
He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her five children, and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury. He didn't tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence was prefaced with a thanks to God for a
blessing. He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer. He thanked God for giving him the strength to keep going.
At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children's room for him. When I got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded and the little man was out on the porch.
He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus, haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said, "Could I please come back and stay the next time I have a treatment?
I won't put you out a bit. I can sleep fine in a chair." He paused a moment and then added, "Your children made me feel at home.
Grownups are bothered by my face, but children don't seem to mind. "I told him he was welcome to come again.
And on his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the morning. As a gift, he brought a big fish and a quart of the largest oysters I had ever seen. He said he had shucked them that morning before he left so that they'd be nice and fresh. I knew his bus left at 4:00 a.m. and I wondered what time he had to get up in order to do this for us.
In the years he came to stay overnight with us there was never a time that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables from his garden.
Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special delivery; fish and oysters packed in a box of fresh young spinach or kale, every leaf carefully washed. Knowing that he must walk three miles to mail these, and knowing how little money he had made the gifts doubly precious. When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a comment our next-door neighbor made after he left that first morning. "Did you keep that awful looking man last night?
I turned him away! You can lose roomers by putting up such people!"
Maybe we did lose roomers once or twice. But oh! If only they could have known him, perhaps their illness' would have been easier to bear.
I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with gratitude to God.
Recently I was visiting a friend who has a greenhouse, As she showed me her flowers, we came to the most beautiful one of all, a golden chrysanthemum, bursting with blooms.
But to my great surprise, it was growing in an old dented, rusty bucket.
I thought to myself, "If this were my plant, I'd put it in the loveliest container I had!"
My friend changed my mind. "I ran short of pots," she explained, "and knowing how beautiful this one would be, I thought it wouldn't mind starting out in this old pail.
It's just for a little while, till I can put it out in the garden."
She must have wondered why I laughed so delightedly, but I was imagining just such a scene in heaven.
"Here's an especially beautiful one," God might have said when he came to the soul of the sweet old
fisherman. "He won't mind starting in this small body."
All this happened long ago - and now, in God's garden, how tall this lovely soul must stand. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7b)
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