I am a fan of the great Christian writer, CSLewis. He taught me a lot. Gave me hope & confidence in Christianity. Found out from his Bio that his mother's name was ... FLORENCE.

My sponsored child 'graduated' from the program. I sought another one. Chose a little girl whose name was also, 'FLORENCE after CSLewis mother.

Needed an alternate email address. Used the name, FLORENCE. My real name is Julieta.

At work, a rep didnt log off properly in the internet cafe. The Link, 'God's Promises' went to him instead of to my dad. I had used my Florence address because dad doesnt like me evangelizing to him and deletes my messages. Thought I would sneak one in. He would at the very least open it.

The reps late mother was named FLORENCE. She died in 2006. He responded to the mail I sent because he thought I was another FLORENCE, a former coworker who he hadnt seen in a long time.

There followed about 6 months of correspondence. We became very close online. He said he loved Florence, etc. I was agonizing how to tell him. Turned out he knew all along. He was shouting at me on the phone, saying I should have told him sooner. I told him, I kept trying but didnt know how. Thought he would be disappointed. Hoped the friendship would just phase out and nobody would be hurt. I was so upset.

I broke off the correspondence. He sent me a mail saying he was going thru tough times, thats why he doesnt mail any more.

I bought a condo. Turns out it is near FLORENCE Drive. I spent months seeking a roommate. No luck. The former owner of the condo spent months seeking a roommate for me as well. Finally after turning down dozens of people, she found Faith.

Turns out, Faith is this guys sister.

He visits and we have nice talks. He is not mad. He is very, very happy.

Faith said for months she had been begging him to contact her, that she was worried, etc. But he had been so very busy. And had lots of trouble and problems at that time.

Took Faith to my church as a visitor. The Host Pastor was a nice man. Good preacher. Turns out his wife's name is...FLORENCE.

Okay...there is a difference between explaining something and explaining it away. This is a direct quote from my CSLewis. Remember, his mothers names was.. FLORENCE..which is why I chose little FLORENCE...etc. etc. and here we are today.

Today at work..2 more Florences appeared on my computer.

I am romantically interested in this guy, yes. Faith keeps smiling when she mentions his name. She tells me how busy he is, but he is coming again soon. That he wishes he could visit regularly, but he has to keep going to Ottawa...I dont pry and ask the reason.

His late mother died in 2006...just didnt wake up one morning. She had apparently been in perfect health. She was 61 years old at the time. Of course her name was FLORENCE..

I am interested in hearing what SQuire has to say about this.

florence.banda@yahoo.ca

After nine years of living in a dysfunctional family, with an alcoholic father, who was also a veteran of WWII. My 14-year-old sister arranged for myself and two brothers to live in a Home for children of disabled veterans. I lived there for almost nine years under the loving care of Mrs. Mayhue who was our building housemother. She was as kind as she was tuff, demanding only the best from all of us girls. There was never any affection shown such as hugs, but she would lift us up with her inspirational words.

Mrs. Mayhue was a devoted Christian and attended the local Baptist church. And she was devoted to making sure that us girls were Christians as well. I accepted Christ at the age of nine and was baptized after passing the stringent test Mrs. Mayhue gave us. She tested us to make sure we knew exactly why we were being baptized.

When I was a sophomore in high school during one of her weekly group meetings she announced that she had Leukemia. That she would live as long as God allowed and when her work was done on earth she would leave us. The disease took its toll on her making it almost impossible to attend church, but somehow she would manage. Knowing how much she loved attending, I would baby-sit the girls in our building for her. She would offer to pay me, but I felt privileged to do this for her.

I was close to Mrs. Mayhue and she gave me extra privileges that she said that I had earned. He health got to the point she was in the hospital a great deal of time. And during those times I would again look after the girls in the building. Our superintendent would come and check in on me every evening to make sure all was going according to plan.

I was extremely emotional about her dying and death seemed closer as the sicker she became. I was almost 18 years old and high strung and had experienced and incident that upset me to the point of running away from the home. This decision would haunt me for over 20 years. I did not find out that she had died until months afterwards, making it impossible for me to attend her funeral. Not confronting her death made it difficult for me to move forward in my life. The therapist said not confronting her death was unhealthy for me. He didn’t give me the tools in which to do this so I was left in limbo for 20 years.

The issue of never saying goodbye came back to me when I faced almost dying during back surgery. Before the surgery I talked to God acknowledging that I knew that I was only taking care of my immediate family of 3 young sons, my youngest was still nursing. And I said to Him, if you give me my life and give me what you want me to do then I will do it. In the recovery room He came to me mentally and told me to arrange for the first reunion of the Home.

The home had been built in 1928 and it was now 1983 and in all those years we had never gotten together for a reunion. God paved the way for me to find and gather together former residents that had lived in the Home throughout those years. As I was addressing our former alumni I told them that I was going to write a book about the Home.

I said, ok God, this is Barbra and you know my heart and you know that I am willing to accept the book from you. But remember I can’t spell and I am not a writer but if you think I can do this then give it to me. So with that said, I sat out to start gathering material for the book. I spent one whole day with my good friend and former alumni Verda at the Home going through old photos.

Unfortunately I could not find any photos of Mrs. Mayhue it was like she only existed in my heart and mind. I did find a couple of old albums that she had put together of us girls. I remember watching as she lovingly put the photos and clippings in. She had beautiful penmanship and her handwriting was all over the album. Going through all the photos and having spent the day at the Home I was extremely emotional and spent the next day in bed.
My tears were a mixture of sadness of bad things that had happened. There was also a sadness of my missing all the girls that I had grown up with. My heart was heavy when I went to bed that night and God gave me a dream. It was a dream of Mrs. Mayhue’s funeral I could she her lying in the coffin. And I was standing in front of the church giving her eulogy. The church was full and I was telling everyone how she had become my mother and how much I loved her. Telling them that she had become mother to hundreds of girls in care. That she gave us the tools to live by, not just for the time being, but life lessons to live in the world with.

She always had wonderful saying and constantly repeated them, “Give to the world the best you have and best will come back to you.” “It’s not the man who falls who fails, it’s the man who never gets back up that fails.” “The world doesn’t owe you a living.”

When I woke up from this moving dream, I still had tears on my face from crying. I had cried, as it was the day she died and the dream was as real as if it just happened.

To feel closer to her I picked up one of the albums that she had made. For some reason I found a picture that I untapped. I don’t remember the picture, but what I found underneath was the most amazing thing ever. There lay hidden for over twenty years was a picture of Mrs. Mayhue and I taken on my 17th birthday. She had hidden the picture away for what reason, only God knows.

I believe I was given the dream to say goodbye and then finding the picture; well it was all a gift from God. He knew that my heart was willing. By my following His directions in doing the reunion and the book, He gave me the greatest healing. That is of healing my spirit and giving me the chance to say goodbye.

His gift of the book titled, “My Home the Home of Many,” was published in 1986. And I followed His directions to give away all my proceeds back to the Home. This was my way of saying thank you to the American Legion Veterans for taking care of me as a child, and for giving me a good life. You see I had faith and trusted that He would give my newly graduated husband a job, and He did. We have lived the past 18 years in Paris France, the Island of Malta, Ireland, England, Algeria, Dubai UAE.

God has given me another 2 manuscripts both copyrighted, one, of inspirational thoughts. I want to publish it and give all the proceeds to the Home. He has given me a much larger book of 265 pages not yet published titled, “Mrs. Mayhue’s Girls.” This book I tell you the reason I had to leave my family and go to live in the Home. I tell you how it was to live and grow up with over 100 other boys and girls. Who became my sisters and brothers and how we became a unique family.

I tell you how Mrs. Mayhue’s love gave me the ability to become the strong women that she knew that I could become. And her devotion enabled her girls in her care to see and to know and accept Christ as our own. She lived her belief showing us that He was indeed living in us.

God enabled the men and women of the American Legion the ability to help there fallen comrades children. Proving that He is an awesome and loving God and can, and will use those who are willing to be used. Me I am not a writer but work tirelessly to tell the world of our wonderful life together. All things are possible, through Christ that strengthen us. I envision a movie of our unique life together. If it is His will then it will be.

Sincerely Barbra,
The most thankful women in the whole world.
And thank you for allowing me to tell you just a tiny bit of how He's work in my life...

When my husband and I first met things were a little rocky because we both came out of a bad relationship so we took a year off. When we got back together after not talking for a year. After dating for awhile he became my fiance. He wanted to go to church I was not in the area at the time so he called up a church and asked if he could get a ride. He got talking to the associate pastor and also my uncle. I did not know that my uncle was at that church. My husband now says that it was a sign from God. My uncle ended up marring us. We have 3 kids now. So God really does wink at you from time to time.