Lauraleen Renae Ford is Bob's daughter.  She is an attorney living in New York State.  It was so very special that she was able to fly out to be at David & Breanna's wedding!  She and her Uncle Don enjoyed some quality time talking together.  

 

Dear Mary Lou, David, and Daniel,

I learned about Don's passing last night, and want to reach out to you.  I wish I could be there with you in person, but at least am so glad to have seen each of you, and especially Don, so recently.  What a gift that he was able to see both his sons through to marriage.

Mary Lou my thoughts are especially with you because you are facing so much grief and loss right now.  I worry for you, and hope you will let people know when you need support, as I am sure you will.

I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to know Uncle Don.  If it were not for all the time we spent together in Walnut Creek, when I was at PUC, I would not have had the chance to know him very well.  As it was, I had the chance to each of you much better.

I am sending each of you a big hug, and all of my sympathy.

Love,

Laura

 

Laura R. Ford, J.D., Ph.D. (Sociology) Post-Doctoral Fellow, The Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy SUNY Buffalo Law School

Arlene is the social worker assigned to Don and Mary Lou. She is tender-hearted, deeply spiritual, and so kind.

 

From Arlene   voicemail   6-17-15    7:45 pm


Hi Mary Lou, this is Arlene from hospice.

I’m thinking about you, wondering how you’re doing.
I’m absolutely sure your faith is strong, but we still miss  people we love.
We miss them very very much.

I’ve had an occasion this week-end to cry about some losses.

You know, it’s a God-given expression of our feelings.  Even Jesus wept.  It’s how we express that deep love and disappointment in this valley of the shadow.

And then we lift our eyes and we see by faith that little, that little cloud in the east, Mary Lou, that will be a great, incredibly great, wonderful morning.

I’m sure you’re looking forward to it, and in the meantime, it’s hard.

                           and with your mother on your heart.

We can meet sometime, walk together, talk together and pray.

Or if you’re busy with everybody.  Just know I’m praying for you, and with you.


And I’m waiting with you.  I’ve been where you are with your Mom, and,
what an incredible, incredible  person, what a model of faith she has been to you.  So
it’s time to go home, for us all to be together.

God bless you, Mary Lou, remember, I am praying, OK?  And I’m waiting with you.

Have a good rest tonight, if you can.  If you possibly can, give it to Jesus.  But it’s OK if you grieve and cry, for even the Son of God on earth cried.

So talk to you soon, I love you much, ‘bye ‘bye.

From Arline Finkbiner, a volunteer at Walla Walla General Hospital.  On Thursdays she sits at a desk beside the entrance, and takes blood pressures.  For the past many months, Don & Mary Lou have been eating Thursday lunch at the Creekside Café - as a special treat, and Arline always has a sweet smile and a kind word.

Hi!  I have missed you the last two Thursdays.  Is everything alright?

Arline

 

Dear Family,

I just posted this on facebook because I know Don isn't able to give updates anymore.  This is what I wrote:

This is Nora Roth writing.  I just talked on the phone with my sister, Mary Lou Steinweg (Don's wife).

Don's health is failing more rapidly than we were expecting.  For the past few weeks he has been losing weight and requiring more frequent red blood cell transfusions.  Last week he drove most of the way to Sacramento, over a period of three days.  He was able to attend his son David's wedding on Sunday, May 31.  While in Sacramento, Mary Lou and Don stayed with their good friends, Gwen and Don Oliver.  Gwen is a nurse and Don is an E.R. doctor.   Gwen and Don provided wonderful support to Mary Lou and Don Steinweg.

On Monday, June 1, Mary Lou and Don began the return trip to College Place, WA.  Mary Lou had to drive all the way home.  Don's health began changing very rapidly.  Within a day he could no longer walk.  He does not have an appetite and he has begun getting things mixed up mentally.  Since Sunday, Don has had a fever of around 104.  He can barely talk and keeps his eyes closed most of the time.  His oxygen saturation is in the 80's and his heart rate is close to 130 with very labored breathing.

Mary Lou so much appreciates the care hospice is providing.  Don has not expressed fear, but hope in the Lord.  Mary Lou is very sad but is putting her trust in the Lord.  They so much appreciate your prayers and thoughts at this difficult time.

Love you all,

Nora

Dear Family,   I just realized that I've not sent an  email update on Don's condition since February 4. We did send the letter April 1 telling about signing up with hospice on which gave the basics.  I know that some of you are on facebook, so have kept up that way.  Some of you we've been talking with by phone.  ALL of you are important to us, and we know that you love us and are praying for us.  Thank you so much!   We just returned from our visit with Dr. Q at the cancer center.  Visits are more frequent (usually every 2 weeks, sometimes weekly) and red blood cell transfusions sometimes as long as 3 weeks apart, but more often 2 week intervals.  His next transfusion of 2 units of packed red blood cells is scheduled for Thursday.

We are SO glad that Don's platelet levels are staying stable around 9.  (normal is 140-440, and he was 44 when he was first diagnosed), and he has not been bleeding!  Praise the Lord for this blessing!
Although nowadays his hemoglobin is mostly around 6  (normal is 13.5-18, and he was 9.6 when first diagnosed) he is still walking every day (albeit a little bit slower . . .) and goes up and down the stairs.  His heart is very irregular, and at times rapid, but "calms down" after he sits & rests for a few minutes.  Fortunately, his oxygen saturation is 96-100 each time it is checked.  We're so grateful!   In the white blood cell department, today is  .7  (normal is 4-11, and he was 1.2 when first diagnosed).  This is the lowest number since 10-2014.  Thankfully, he has been protected from infection!!!  Don doesn't shake hands/hug, stays away from crowds, doesn't fly on airplanes, and we limit interactions with other people.  Infection is one of the top causes of death in people with AML.   We just thank the Lord for every day of life that He provides, and want to make the most of the days we are given!!!  Don has been such a help with the BUSY prison ministry!  He makes daily trips to the post office to take the letters/literature to mail, and to pick up the incoming letters, marks & opens the envelopes, takes them over to Mom's so she can read them & grade the many Bible study lessons.  Don stamps envelopes, folds & stuffs, and encourages me when I feel overwhelmed.  The Lord has been blessing so wonderfully!  There are many new inmates who want Bible studies and want to serve the Lord.   We appreciate the weekly visits by Susan, the hospice nurse, as well as other personnel.
  Last week-end we had a very special trip over to stay in a cabin at the Project Patch Conference Center near Goldendale, WA.  It is up on the higher land above the great Columbia river, nestled in the pine trees.  Linda Hill, the hospitality coordinator, who remembers her family being patients of Dad's, took us and our picnic lunch, down to a beautiful secluded place on the property called "Tupper Park" (a whole 'nother story) and we had such a quiet & pleasant meal there.  Then she returned in the ATV and took one of her friends and us out to a wild look-out point where we could see the glorious waterfall.  Lupines and other wildflowers are in abundance.  How glorious!!!

 Project Patch - Conference Center  
              Project Patch - Conference Center Project PATCH, at-risk teens, family therapy, family experience, parenting seminars, the family experience, family coaching, therapy, coaching, family help   View on www.projectpatch.org Preview by Yahoo    
Sabbath was sparkling clear, and we could see Mt. Adams looming high and Mt. Hood in the distance.  We walked, watched birds, studied God's Word, and rested and were refreshed.
  Sunday we had the privilege of visiting the town of Bickleton where the residents have put up around 2,000 Bluebird houses.  We spent some time watching birds at an old cemetery, and saw 2 males sitting on the same fence with a row of beautiful daffodils in the background.  One was Western Bluebird, and the other  a Mountain Bluebird.  What a treat.  I'm glad that Jesus created such beautiful birds!   Earlier, we saw a really beautifully colored male Western BB, flying from a wire, down to the ground and back up etc.  As we watched, we realized that his right foot just hung down useless.  I was sad.  As we watched, though, we saw that he seemed to compensate well, could hop back to front on the wire, could fly well, and could catch bugs.  He looked so jaunty and cheery and wasn't complaining about his useless right leg, just used the strong leg and his wings.  A good lesson for both of us!   http://www.ourbetternature.org/bickletonwa.htm  
           
Western Bluebird                                       Mountain Bluebird           (photos from Wikipedia)   We're planning (subject to the Lord's providence of course) to attend David and Bre's wedding in the Sacramento area on May 31.  That seems a very long time off in many ways - since we've been living literally day to day, not knowing what will be happening with Don's health - but it is a joy and a privilege to exercise faith.   We're reading through Living by Faith once again, and it seem to be better and brighter each time!  If you need another copy (or 10) please let us know, OK?   This spring, here in our valley, has been more beautiful than any we can remember!!!  There have been hundreds of tulips of every color and shape, pink dogwood trees and purple redbud trees and lilac bushes, and bright yellow forsythia, and many others of all varieties.  Now, though, the redbud blossoms have dropped to the ground.  Almost all of the tulip petals have fallen and withered.  The dogwood trees which were absolutely brilliant in dark pink hue are now during a delicate light pink & white as their petals begin to wither and die.  All the yellow forsythia blossoms have been replaced by green leaves.  The glorious burst of color is past - now it is only a pleasant memory.  Alas, memories fade as well.


"All flesh is like the grass.  All its glory like the flower of the grass.  Behold, the grass withers and its flower falls off.

. . . . .   BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ABIDES FOREVER."   (Isaiah 40:6-8, 1 Peter 1:24,25)

This is our focus and our comfort and our joy and our hope and our urgent privilege to share.  Amen.

With lots of love to you each.  

    Mary Lou 

 

be sacrificed during the 14 days of a biblical feast, including the "Countdown".

Oct 1998  God impressed Mary Lou and me in the same week that we were too busy working to learn about His word, so we quit our jobs the second time.

Fall 1998  God helped me understand that all descriptions of good had to be about Jesus, and all descriptions about evil applied to me, among others.  Mary Lou and I sang with new meaning the song, "The light of the moon is like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun is seven times brighter".

Fall 1998  Mary Lou started learning more about the Hebrew language.  She started to realize that certain Hebrew words such as "Aleph" had very deep meanings and she was learning about how God inspired the Hebrew alphabet.

Winter 1999  I started studying the four gospels, word by word.  Later, I started studying the book of Job, word by word.

Mar 2004  I started working in telephone customer support at half wage so that I could continue to have time to study God's word.

Aug 2004  Mary Lou decided to start keeping the Sabbath again, and going back to church.  I started searching my soul to find out if I was misguided, or whether the many, many verses we had learned about the Sabbath and about worship were in fact correct.  God rescued me with the "Sabbath in the Gospels" and with Isaiah 56:2,4,5.

Dec 2006  God gave me time in Centralia to organize scripture songs according to subject and by importance.  I was able to print out cards that I used for singing scripture songs for 6 years while driving a semi-truck.

Nov 2013  After finding out I had Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), I prayed to the Lord that only He knew if it was better if I lived or if I died.

Nov 2013  God impressed me that it would be better if I died while trusting in Him, than if I lived while seeking traditional treatment.  If traditional treatment was successful then there would be no glory to God.

 

 

This was in the blue folder "Don-Important".  I have endeavored to present it just the way he did.

I want to close with 1 Peter 4:19 -

"Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator."                                                                                

                                                                   Mary Lou

 

with articles from E.J. Waggoner and A.T. Jones, who Sister White said had a special message (from 1888) .  We started sharing that book and another one, "The Third Angel's Message", with our friends and relatives.

Summer 1978  We discovered that it is almost impossible to remember more than about 300 memory verses at the same time.

Spring 1979  My Bible study taught me that "The Son of Man" was the despised One, and that "Power and Glory" had to do with the sanctuary.

Spring 1979  Used the Bible to explain the Bible with the Bible.  Studied Daniel 12:1 and Daniel 12:7, word by word.

Sep 1979  God impressed Mary Lou and me the same day that He had not instituted the system of worshiping together in the "synagogue" format, and we stopped going to traditional Sabbath and mid-week services.

Oct 1979  Mary Lou and I shared some precious truths with John and Elora Ford, and they believed we were in error, and we had to seek the Lord as to whether we were truly in error.

Fall 1979  We started using a Englishmen's Hebrew/Chaldee Concordance helping us to find all verses with a certain Hebrew word.

Mar 1980 While we were at Falcon State Park, God gave Ann three scripture songs which we recorded during our conversation with her on the phone, and this started a flood of hundreds of pages of scripture songs.

Spring 1980  While at Balmorea State Park, God impressed me that there was more to the number Seven in the Bible than the Sabbath as we understood it.

Summer 1980  Mary Lou and I had an experience in Connecticut that allowed us to realize that the final test before the coming of Jesus had to be different than we had imagined.

Spring 1981  The Lord started teaching Mary Lou and me about "The Man, the One, and He" and about "The city, the walls, and the temple".

Sep 1982  We got part-time jobs so that we could continue to have time to study the Bible and write and learn scripture songs.

Winter 1998  I made a spreadsheet showing the number of different animals that were to

Apr 1974  I met a Christian man, non-Adventist, who encouraged me to read a book "Praise God in All Things".  I thanked God for losing my job, even though I did not like it.  A spark of actual faith was lit in my heart.

Jul 1974  I got to Loma Linda for a new job in Riverside, and listened to Elder Bill Lehman, and realized God was working in a special way through him.

Summer 1974  I tried studying the Bible for the first time, instead of reading it.

Winter 1975  I started teaching a Sabbath School class weekly.  I would make a list of 20 Bible verses that I studied that morning, and the whole Sabbath School lesson was reading those verses, and talking about what they said.

Winter 1975  I started taking a one-hour nap after work, so that I could sleep less total hours, so that I could have time to get up in the morning to study my Bible.

1976  I gave a sermon at Victoria company, and only talked from a list of 25 Bible verses, no prepared remarks.

1976  I felt like the Lord wanted me  to work in a Dark County.  I sent out letters to dozens of Chambers of Commerce.

Feb 1977  The Lord changed my heart and gave me love for Mary Lou.

Spring 1977  I realized that Alan Crandall, the youth pastor, did not believe in an experiential religion.  I went to talk with him about having more than a religion of words.  "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so", not because He is real, would be one way to express this concept.

Summer 1977 Campus Hill Church was looking for a new pastor.  I was an elder, and was aware that the members of the committee did not understand what would make a good minister.

Aug 1977  Mary Lou and I chose Elder Trujillo to give our wedding, because he had a personal knowledge of the Lord.

Nov 1977  God impressed Mary Lou and me the same evening that the coming of Jesus was sooner than we thought, and that we needed to quit our jobs so that we could talk to our Adventist friends and relatives about His soon coming.

Winter 1978  We discovered that Mary Lou's parents had published "Lessons on Faith"

 

Spring 1964  I would sit in my bed for 30 minutes before sundown on Friday evening as a special treat.

Fall 1964  I started reading 15 minutes a day from the Bible and 15 minutes a day from the Spirit of Prophecy.

1966  I read Leviticus thinking about what we could learn about Jesus from each part of the Sanctuary service.

Fall 1966  I was chosen to be the leader of a Friday night program called Seminar, where academy students gave religious talks.  Since I was the leader, I was the first to give a 20 minute talk.

Fall 1966  In Bible Doctrines class, they tried to explain to us why the "Sunday Law" had to do with the Mark of the Beast.  I tried as hard as I could but could not find the Spirit of Prophecy quotations that actually said that.

Winter 1967  I was chosen as one of four students to go to a "Bible Conference" at Camp Au Sable.

Spring 1967  I wrote my senior term paper on "Child Guidance",  almost all quotes out of the book "Child Guidance".

Spring 1967  I was chosen among other students to give a talk for the week-of-prayer.  I was assigned a chapter from "Steps to Christ" and gave a talk with 50% of the words from one chapter, 'Repentance', which I practiced multiple hours.

1968  Pastor John Loor became the pastor of the Collegedale Church, and his emphasis was on Jesus, which seemed very different.

1969  Elder Frazee came to give the week-of-prayer and it was all about the Sanctuary.

1970  Elder Morris Venden came to give a week-of-prayer about "Righteousness by Faith" and I felt like I was a lost person if I did not get to hear his next talk.  I made notes that I carried in my wallet for the next several years about how to fight to keep a connection with Jesus, rather than to fight sin directly.

Mar 1974  I was fired from my job in Kalamazoo, Michigan, after 15 months.

1948  My mother had a miscarriage while living at high altitude.

Aug 1949 The Lord preserved my life through a difficult birth at 12,500 feet of elevation, the same altitude that my mother previously had a miscarriage at.  My Dad was away ministering to the Indians and the Lord provided the right people to show up at the right times so I could live.

Nov 1950  My dad got sick with an illness that there was no recorded survivor from, except one patient that received treatment within one hour.  My dad did not receive treatment for several days.  The Lord gave him an additional 48 years of life, without which I would not have known my dad.

1957  I wanted to go play and was walking away from my mother.  She kept saying, "Don, come back" and eventually I decided to come back.

1957  I did something in second or third grade where I had to stand in the corner in school.  I decided I never wanted to do that again.

Sep 1958  We went to Ecuador as missionaries.  Everyone else in the family took naps or siestas, but I could not fall asleep.  I started doing the dishes from the noon meal, but had time left over and I started reading the Bible.  I made it to Jeremiah.

Jul 1960  I was baptized, at my request.  I remember how glowing I felt the rest of that day.

 Dec 1962  My brother Phil gave me a book with "Steps to Christ" and "Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing" in it.  I began to read it.

Jan 1963  I used my own money to buy a book that had "The Seven Secrets of Child Rearing".

1963  After week-of-prayer meetings, I walked home alone and prayed in the woods by myself several evenings instead of in a group.

1963  I had been using a slingshot to playfully shoot rocks somewhat towards friends.  I decided to bury the slingshot and prayed over the burial.

1963  I heard that we should practice the presence of Jesus.  I remember trying to picture Him with me during the day.