Precious Gift of Precious MEMORIES

Our wonderful friends from South Africa put together the following lovely pages of pictures of Mickey & I as a gift today - our 57th Anniversary.  

 October 4, 1958 - Flagstaff,  Arizona

 Miscellaneous shots.  The top on is the most recent taken of us at Young-At-Heart Meeting a couple of weeks ago.

More Miscellaneous Pictures the larger one was the last one taken before Mickey's heart surgery year!!  You can tell one of my favorite colors is blue.

October 4, 2012 - San Francisco, California

Thank you for this special gift of photo remembrances on this our special

Anniversary Day 

October 4, 2015

A Very Special Gift From FAR-FAR AWAY from Very Special PEOPLE

On February 11th I received a phone call from The Green Parrot Cafe informing me that our wonderful friends, from South Africa had contacted them and purchased a gift certificate for Mickey, son Marc, grandson Aric and myself to enjoy a meal.  Talk about shocked and stunned.  I can only imagine the love, time and effort that went into their doing this!  First, locating a local cafe here in Coweta and then going through all the work, and back & forth they had to go through, to accomplish this surprise.

Due to Mickey's health and the hospitalizations, Dr. appointments, procedures, and just generally being basically home bound the majority of the time,  it took us 52 days to reap the joy and thrill of this unique and wonderful love.              

The four of us  awaiting our order.

The three generation of Joyce men as we enter 

The Green Parrot Cafe

This Cafe was established in 1942, 73 years ago and when I was a 4 years old child in Santa Fe, New Mexico and had never even heard of Coweta, Oklahoma!!!

It is on the main street, which is Broadway, and is known by everyone who lives in Coweta.

It is a landmark and a hangout for many of the locals.

The only female in this group getting a picture of the front window and sign (and myself!)

One of the nice things about The Green Parrot is they serve breakfast the entire 7 1/2 hours they are opened, in addition to a large selection of other items and a daily special.

Our choices ran the gambit - Aric had breakfas: waffle, egg, bacon - Mickey & Marc both had the Chicken fried steak special with 2 vegetables & bread - Susan had hamburger with fries.

EVERYTHING home-style and freshly prepared.

ALL was delicious and we were filled to the brim.

Another interesting thing, on this particular day, other than the owner and cook, I was the only female and all the other patrons were men.

The inside is all panelled with knotty pine and has the old time counter, stools and malt machine

Plus lots & lots of Parrot pictures, figurines and other Parrot items collected over the years.

Yes, quite a unique place and a very unique gift for us from so FAR away.

In a perfect world we would LOVE to have Jason, Retha & Ethan with us eating here at 

The Green Parrot in Coweta, Oklahoma.

Mickey & I all smiles and full of joy and gratitude for so blessing us with such a strong SPIRITUAL and LOVING connection with Jason, Rethan and their son Ethan.

It brings tears to my eyes on many occasions when I marvel at the great work GOD has done, and is doing, in our lives and friendship together.  ONLY GOD!!!! 

A SURPRISE - A GIFT - A TREASURE

WOW-WOW-WOW!!!! Is all I can say!!!!!! I just received a wonderful, Biblical Pandora charm in the mail. I have NO idea who has blessed me with this wonderful item and surprise. Will whom ever it is PLEASE come forwarD? The package is By Design Jewelry in Leominster, MA. I am literally blown away by this. PLEASE!!!! 

I left this post on my fb page Monday after receiving this wonderful Pandora charm in a small package in the mail.  It  was "liked" by 28 of my friends, as of this writing, and this morning I received the following private message:

Ma Susan, it was not meant to be so secretive. Because mail is not safe I did not know what to do. I dó get irritated by them. I thought this a good way to give you something I know you like. The pandora charm. But I also wanted it to be something that you can see come from us. That why I looked for this big 5. It was difficult to write a birthday note and not know if or when the gift will get to you. I must say in my excitement I did not think of how you will know it come from us three. Love and hugs, J, R, & E.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, for the story. ~ ~ ~ Retha, Jason and their son Ethan are from South Africa. I became acquainted with Retha through blogging, shortly after beginning my blogging journey in January, 2007. Over these almost 8 years we have developed a Spiritual, as well as personal, relationship that only GOD, whom we both love and serve, could have and DID put together.

A Spiritual relationship and connection that is a priceless gift to Mickey & I. In October, 2008, it was Retha who placed a long distance telephone call to me in the recovery room right after Mickey had his double bi-pass heart surgery. Over these years Retha and her husband, Jason, have called us on several occasions, written us letters and we have shared small gifts over these years. Although I have sent her several items that have never arrived due to the mail situation in Africa. 

I know we will probably never meet in the flesh in this lifetime but we have met in the Spirit on a level that is truly a priceless gift. She is 29 years younger than I and she is truly like a daughter to me, and I am Ma Susan to her.  

Retha you, Jason & Ethan

are my GIFT from our Father God

and

I LOVE this special token

& SURPRISE

from you three for my 78th Christmas/Birthday.

THANK YOU

from the bottom of my heart.

An ANGEL from my far away ANGEL

I am so very thankful for SOOO many blessings that my Lord & Savior, Jesus The Christ, has bestowed on me.  

One of the greatest blessings are the wonderful Christian friends and Sisters-in-Christ my Lord and Savior, JESUS, has connected me with.

One of these is my dear friend Retha.  We "met" via our blogs way back in 2007, almost 7 years ago. Retha is a jewel and a gem in my life in many ways.

Yesterday, when Mickey brought in the mail I had a package from South Africa from Retha. Enclosed, wrapped in many layers of wrapping was this precious, sparkling, shining 2 1/2", very fragile, little crystal angel.  

Here she sits, in front of some books to try and get a picture of her sparking , dainty beauty.

Retha and I are separate by 9,077 miles!!!

She lives in South Africa--8 time zones away from me in Oklahoma,

BUT in the Spirit and in the heart we are so connected!!!
Though we will never meet in person here on earth, she will be one of the very first I will rush to meet some day in heaven!!!  We both cling to that reality and hope.  

Here she joins my other 5 smallest angels, in my large angel collection.  She will actually "live" in the front and center of these other 5 on this mirror plate. I lined them up this way in order to get a decent picture of all of them.  

The 4 holding the gem hearts represent my 4 children and came on my 69th birthday cake from my daughter, Jacque.  They are as follows:

Blue - Hope - Son David

Pink - Love - Son Marc

Green - Joy - Daughter Suzette

Purple - Faith - Daughter Jacque

The other crystal angel, on the other end, is a Christmas present several years ago that my friend, Jeanne, gave each of us in the WOW -  (Woman of the Word ) Bible Study.

Thank you Retha for your thoughtfulness, love & friendship.  

When I look at this littlest angel I will remember Christmas 2013, which will also be my 76th birthday. 

(((((HUGS))))) across these 9,000+ miles to you 

my dear, precious friend.