May 2004 No. 2

HEAVILIN HERALD

Well, we certainly are experiencing most of the problems of RV life. Our house has been “broken” since the 11th of May. It has been in the shop since the 25th of May. The bad news is the gray water tank has not yet arrived. In fact it won’t be shipped from California until some time next week! The good news is we have wonderful friends who are willing to let us hang around while we are waiting for our house to be healed. We have decided to make a vacation out of this mandatory hiatus, so tomorrow we plan to leave for the shores of Lake Huron with our friends Jack and Carol. We are beginning to realize we may not arrive at Keswick by the middle of June as planned, but I’m sure they will be glad to see us when we do finally arrive.
There have been some great days and happenings in the month of May: Glen’s brother George survived open heart surgery and we had the privilege of sitting with his wife Cathy and getting to chat with other family members while we waited for good news from the operating room; we spent three days with about 70 other Heavilins at the 20th Heavilin cousins’ reunion in Edwardsburg, Michigan. Eight of the nine living siblings from the original 15 were there. Glen’s dad, the oldest of the clan, celebrated his 90th birthday with all of us. About 20 of the aunts, uncles, and cousins rode the Heavilin float in the Memorial Day parade in Edwardsburg, Michigan.

A special bonus for us was that Matt, Deb, Kate, Nate, and Caleb attended the reunion. They also sang for the congregation of the First Baptist Church of Edwardsburg on Sunday morning. There were about 50 Heavilins in attendance at that service.
While in North Carolina we got to visit my cousins Mary, Ralph, Bob, and Faye as well as my Aunt Belle and Uncle Fred. What am I learning during our travels? We shouldn’t have waited so long to visit our families and friends. When you think of loved ones you haven’t seen in a while, take time to write or call them NOW. Don’t wait. I have discovered these people are really neat and unfortunately distance and busyness blocked me from getting to know these people better.
We have had wonderful visits with John and Rose Stanley, my cousins Sharon and Al, my Aunt Mickey, and our friends Jack and Carol.

We are still strong supporters of the fulltimers' life. We are learning to trust God even when He surprises us with changes we didn't expect.

Marilyn Heavilin
author of Roses In December