The outcome is a spirit of gratitude and sense of awe at the “you’re not going to believe this,” but it is all true. For three years, I’d lamented the loss of a place of worship that had transfigured itself to the wishes of a powerful few. I had resigned membership in a denomination that had been home base for me for over 20 years. I searched for a new journey where I hoped I might use any relevant gifts and talents I might have for a higher power and a greater good, no labels required.
It was like any other morning. I’d parked my steaming cup of coffee on my desk, scrolling through the morning e-mail batches, I discovered one from my longtime friend and colleague, Ann (also my neighbor two blocks over), referring to me an inquiry in case I had time and interest. Generally, it was helping a woman get her collection of poems published as a book.
I’d been doing this kind of work for 15 years, so I read on. The e-mail she forwarded was from Maia Joy, a seasoned author and composer in her own right who lives in Virginia. She’d searched an online database of Texas professional editors and found Ann living in the same zip code as the poet. It was Maia’s mom, Marcia, from North Zulch, who had been telling her daughter about this amazing woman and her poetry, urging, “Other people must read what Ms. Mary Lee has written. It is truly special and will be a blessing to others.” Did Ann have time and room in her schedule to take on the project? Ann was already booked up, but she offered to refer me and forwarded the e-mail.
I asked Maia for more details; that afternoon I was on the phone with Marcia. She shared that on an earlier Sunday morning in 2022, she had joined her pewmate, Ms. Mary Lee Crocker Parnell, who had arrived at Sand Prairie Baptist Church with a 1-inch worn coil-bound book with at least 100 poems. Ms. Mary Lee confided in Marcia how she had truly longed for her poems to be bound and published. Marcia casually thumbed through them and was inspired to want to help her friend realize her dream. Without indicating her next step, Marcia reached out to her daughter.
We agreed to meet the following week in Normangee, TX. From North Zulch, TX, to Virginia, to Bryan, down two blocks, on up to Normangee, and back to Bryan, the worn blue binding holding Ms. Mary Lee’s precious poems had at last arrived.
Our 86-year-old poet, Marcia shared, had not written one poem in her life until the age of 50. She said the Lord gave her each of these poems and instructed her to memorize them all because there might come a day when she could not see them to read them without a large, complex reading aide. That day would ultimately arrive.
One by one, her beautiful classic handwritten poems showcased her memories in verse. One poem was of gratitude for her mother, another for her son, and yet another was for her job at a rural mushroom process plant, a most repugnant odor follows you everywhere. Imagine the level of humility with which a woman of genuine grace and appreciation for all of God’s blessings writes a tribute to her boss in a mushroom factory?
That lunch and discussion with Marcia was truly inspirational, and immediately I agreed that it would be my new publishing project. It is the beginning of the beautiful story and what has now become a fellowship of at least four women who are united in sharing good news, faith, and beautiful, uplifting verse to inspire others to hold onto their faith, especially when they least have anything left to give, or so they think. Even if you wait 36 years, never give up on your dreams. We decided to keep our endeavor a surprise from Ms. Mary Lee until we could hand her a finished book to have and hold.
Today our country celebrates a National Day of Prayer. No matter your denomination—if you belong to one—it is refreshing to join with strangers in prayer to a higher power, to give thanks for the blessings we have or to ask for guidance and support as we set forth to create and meet goals that may promise success but guarantee taking a chance and possibly upsetting status quo.
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