My Charlie Story
In 1981 I was at a very hard turning point in my life, my marriage of 10 years was ending, I had two children I needed to take care of and a new chapter in my life to begin. I didn’t know what God had in store at that time for me but the direction he took my life lead to one of total happiness, fulfillment, full of love, laughter and a very precious relationship.
The new chapter in my life started in August, 1981 with taking a job at the radio station in Athens, TN where a DJ named Stephen Pell worked. Steve and I became instant friends not knowing at that time that our lives would ever be intertwined for the rest of our lives.
On that day that same day in August, 1981, Charlie, Steve, and the rest of the Bellows family faced a very dark day when Charlie and his first wife Joanne were involved in an auto accident that resulted in the loss of Joanne’s life, leaving Charlie to raise to their newborn son alone.
I didn’t know the Bellows at that time, but through and with Steve I grieved for their loss.
In January, 1982, Steve decided to play match maker and arranged somewhat of a blind date for Charlie and I. That date was the beginning of 28 years full of tears, happiness, more love than one could image, laughter, hard times and great times.
Charlie and I were married in 1983, and started our life with my two boys and his baby son who I had come to love and adore as my own.
There were times that God was at the center of our lives and there were times that the world was the center of our lives, but looking back now the years that God was the center were the happiness and most blessed years.
In recent years Charlie and I decided that while we had a great life together and were truly blessed, we were not praising the Lord that had provided that life for us in the way we should. There were things going on in our family that was very hard and painful for all of us to deal with and we felt so unequipped to deal with it.
It was at that time that the book the Purpose Driven Life came out and our wonderful neighbors across the street invited us to be a part of a small group at their house to study this book and it’s meaning with them. Those meetings and that book forever changed Charlies and my life. We realized that with our totally turning our lives over to Jesus Christ and not just when crisis hit was what we needed to do and we did as a couple.
While Charlie was quiet about his faith and his relationship with Jesus Christ, he none the less had a very deep faith and relationship with him and I have. A relationship that in the past few years has grown stronger and stronger as we have witnessed God working in our lives in so many ways. We placed our total faith in him and opened our own business and HE blessed that business more that I can begin to tell you.
The trials in our family didn’t go away, but through daily devotions and a great deal of time spent on our knees we saw more answers to prayers that I can describe.
I am telling all of you that are gathered here to night as we celebrate his life so that you can know that I have the peace and confidence that Charlie is now with the Jesus Christ that he believed in and love even though he might now have shared it with many of you
I firmly believed that out of the dark times that Charlie and I both were experiencing in August, 1981, God took our lives, joined them and made something beautiful. I believe that our meeting and joining our lives at that time was at the hands of God and it a perfect example how God works during the dark hard times in our lives to bring out the sun again.
While I am so grief stricken, scared, feel totally lost without my soul mate, I know that my life is in God’s hands and he will bring sunshine back into my life in a way that I can’t imagine. He has already shown me in just the the few days since He took Charlie home how much I have to be thankful for and how many wonderful people I have in my life and how much others loved Charlie like I did.
Words can not express how much I appreciate each and every little thing that each of you has done since Monday and pray that it your friendship will continue in the dark days I face ahead until the Sun shines again in my life. Charlie having been through the loss of a dear loved one always told me that you find out who your true friends are in the times following the loss.
