Rena's Story - taken from Doug Murren.com
Rena and her husband had purchased a resort in the 60’s on the west side of the Puget Sound. It was a hard life. They both had to work night and day just to keep things afloat.
The kids had to pitch in, too. But the business bounced along for a while. They hit some hard spots and her husband went back to work in large construction projects.
He was gone all week working in steel framing. Then he would return home on the weekends to be with Rena and the kids. Once in awhile he began staying away on the weekends too. It was a lonely life for both.
Roland (her husband) evidently lost his way and struck up a romance with a much younger woman who lived about two hours from their home. Rena found out all this a few years later. At first he was just in an ill-advised romance. But then the young woman became pregnant. Roland couldn't’t bring himself to reveal his already existent marriage. So he married the new now pregnant woman in his life as well.
He told his new wife that he had to work away on weekends. He must have been very persuasive because both women believed him. So he spent weekdays with his family in Tacoma and weekends with Rena and the kids on the Puget Sound. This went on for a good period of time.
It must have all gotten to him. Roland took their “crabbing” boat into one of the crab beds on the Sound. He had evidently purchased a car for cash and parked in on the east side of the Sound. It appears he took a small dingy with him to row to shore. He faked his death. He knew that the authorities would know that if one drowned in a crab bed there wouldn’t even be any bones left. He left the boat anchored so it appeared he had gotten tangled in the crab pots and drowned.
He was reported dead after an investigation. The freak death was reported and posted in the papers. The second younger wife in Tacoma heard of the death after Roland didn’t return home for several days. She contacted Rena.Both women were in shock. The insurance money was eventually split between them. Rena went on with her life working at Boeing and for a period of time maintaining the resort. Soon she had to sell the properties. She just couldn’t handle it with the kids and work.
Rena never remarried. She always felt there was something not quite right about Roland’s disappearance. She had little contact with the other wife after a few months. But she was hurt. She told me she would have forgiven him and something could have been worked out. She raised the kids and was alone after fifteen years.
Then one day she received a call from Portland, Oregon. They said, “Mrs. Welch your husband has been brain injured on the work site.” She informed them they had the wrong Mrs. Welch. They asked, “Is his name Roland and is this your address?” It was the right name and the address was the old address of the resort.
She took a friend and traveled to Portland to see this Roland. The man they had been caring for had fallen off a roof and a steel rebar had gone through his head. He would be permanently disabled. When she stepped in the room Roland began to cry. She says she was flooded with ten different emotions. But she knew what she had to do. She knew what Jesus would do.
Rena took Roland home when he was able to travel. She nursed him and forgave him. I met Roland about three times. He had trouble talking. And he would weep heavily when ever we talked about Christ. He did receive Christ.
She had been caring for him for six years when I first heard the story. She said it was what people with right hearts do. She said, “you can’t save the world if you can’t save one person.” I haven’t heard from Rena in fifteen years. I am sure she has gone to be with her Savior by now. And Roland I know will be in heaven too. He will be a forgiven man who found dignity from the one he had hurt the most.
Rena notified the insurance company and set a plan to return all she had gotten. She said that was only right. Jesus wants what’s right from us even when it’s hard.
I got a message through my Facebook this week. It was a question from a young wife. Her husband had lost his job and was only able to find work for three days a week. He was so depressed he slept the other four days. She said, “I don’t know if I can live with a man who won’t support me. I am feeling that God wants me to divorce him.” I wish I could introduce her to Rena.
Yvonne's Story - AP and me.
SLC - It took a wedgie and a headlock to pin down a man suspected of breaking into a car. Yvonne M, a technician at the Brickyard Animal Hospital, says she chased a man who broke into a coworkers's car but he kept squirming away from her. Yvonne eventually grabbed the man's boxer shorts and pulled. The SLC police said she then put the man in a headlock until help could arrive. The man was booked into the SLC jail on suspicion of vehicle burglary, possession of stolen property and outstanding wedgies, I mean, warrants.
I don't know if I could do what Rena did. Actually pretty sure, I couldn't. I would hope I would do what Yvonne did on so many levels and I have practiced this scenario in my mind many times but not sure I wouldn't kill him before help got there ( must rework my mental practice, need to hold back a little). Rena and Yvonne's Stories are obviously not on a level playing field but they both display the best of a woman, IMHO. Today meet my new BFF, Revonne...
