Prayers for a Friend

Martha Lynn is a very dear friend.  One of the strongest people I know.  25 years ago when I began working with the Troy City Schools she was a teacher of the Learning Disabled.  She worked at Collegeview and I was based at Oakland Heights.  I would see Martha Lynn when I traveled to Collegeview to see the 4th and 5th grade speech students that I served.  When we consolidated schools into Troy Elementary School we worked at the same school.  Martha Lynn was an awesome teacher that worked really hard with her students and went above and beyond to do whatever it took to reach her students.  She would do the "extra" things to help these students stay off the streets and out of trouble if she needed to. A few years before she could retire she quit teaching and bought a flower shop in town.  Martha Lynn was not only a good teacher but a very talented and creative person.  Teaching in special education can "wear you out" with paperwork and the dedication of your heart to these students.  Martha Lynn was tired and needed a change.  It was a loss to our school system.  When she bought this business she asked me one night at a ballgame if I would come help her out at Valentines making baskets and arrangements.  She knew I had worked at a florist in college.  How excited I was to be asked to go help her and get to "play with pretty things" after school!  Valentine baskets led to helping with prom flowers and then to other things.  I have been able to help with Mother's day, some weddings and funerals. I have learned so much from working with Martha Lynn. A year and a half ago during the Valentine's week we had a big snow storm!  It really put a damper on the orders and business that Valentine's Day.  Snow and ice were so bad that day that people did not come in and order and many deliveries had to be canceled.  That day, Martha Lynn's husband fell on the slippery ice.  Jim hurt his back that day and weeks and weeks later he could not get over it.  He was going to have some back surgery and when tests were being run it was discovered that he had multiple myloma.  This is cancer in the bone marrow.  Jim has had one bone marrow transplant in Birmingham and did really well.  The past few weeks he has been having really bad headaches and had lost some hearing in his hear.  He went to the ENT and they could not find any reason why he should have lost his hearing.  An MRI was done and it showed that a tumor on his skull was pushing on his brain.  Jim is now in Little Rock, Arkansas for treatments.  He is undergoing chemotherapy and is about to have back to back bone marrow transplants.  They are collecting his stem cells and will soon do the transplant. Jim knows he has to get "worse" before he can get better.  Another part of this story is that both of Jim and Martha Lynn's sons are about to get married.  Rob, the older son is getting married in October.  Prayers are for Jim's bone marrow transplant to go as planned and for him to be strong enough to come home for the wedding before he has to go back for his 2nd trnsplant.  Martha Lynn is strong like a rock.  I often worry about my dear friend because she is so strong.  It is a really helpless feeling when you can't help or feel that is really anything you can do.

Martha Lynn and Jim

This weekend there was a coffee for her daughter in law to be on Saturday morning and an Engagement Party for Rob and Morgan that night.  Jim and Martha Lynn were not there to help celebrate so the wonderful parties were not complete.  It made me sad for my friend.  God knows the prayers in my heart for HIS will to be done for Jim.  Their faith is so strong and my prayers and thoughts are constantly with them.   God Bless my friends and let this story have a happy ending.

Rob and Morgan