He came into our lives on a cold January Wednesday night in Danville, Virginia. Red-headed coming roaring out squirming. Neither has changed. That was 53 years ago. Could it have been that long? Since then every church has remembered him. Weird...strange...funny. His Montessori teacher writing and saying: "He was an utter delight--eyes wide open seeing everything bugs, caterpillars, bird's nests, frogs, minnows in the water. Running around the church with a Cape on shouting: "Shazam!" Flying bulletin-made airplanes from a church balcony. Setting fire to another church bulletin on Christmas Eve during the Candlelighting service. Crawling up in our bed on early Sunday mornings saying: "Hey come watch Ernest Angley." I found a note on the pulpit just before I preached that read: "Use the microphone today. Tell everybody I love you." Watching his Grandmother fry chicken and make homemade biscuits and still remembering and cooking them after all these years. Absolutely refusing to take piano lessons--and taking it up 53 years later. Sending his Mama a Mother's Day card with a Monster drawing on the front and inside: "Hey, Mama I love you." Designing Christmas banners when he was sixteen--that still hang in the church every Advent season.
He went to the North Carolina School for the Arts and then to the Art Institute in Chicago. Meeting Mark and then a relationship that is in it's 30th year. He loves his sister and his parents and his nieces and a whole lot of friends.
So I won't bore you with other stories. But I do say on his birthday he is still red-headed and still crazy after all these years--we are glad, very glad he came into our lives. This is your day Matthew. Enjoy!
Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com
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