My Tribute to Maryln Shattuck: "The Wedding Dress"

This is the wedding picture of Maryln and Leland Shattuck; dear, dear friends and parishioners of my parents for over 40 years. The Shattucks have 4 girls and 1 boy and my parents had 4 girls and 2 boys. Ironically, 2 sets of the Shattuck girls and 2 sets of the Fritz girls have been best of friends for years and each "set" of us sang together in Church since we were quite young.

While growing up, either the Fritz girls were at the Shattuck house or the Shattuck girls were at the Fritz house. Many Sunday's after church, my sister, Jodi and I would go home and eat Sunday dinner with Shirley and Darlene. The best part of the day was after the dishes were washed and Maryln and Leland retired to the bedroom for their Sunday nap. Then, the "playing" began.

Often, when we were around the ages of 10-12, weddings were on our minds all the time. Oh the glorious moment when the girls would pull the string hanging from the ceiling that let down a set of stairs leading to the attic. Up in the attic, was Maryln's BEAUTIFUL, REAL, Adult-sized Wedding Dress. And guess what? WE GOT TO PLAY WITH IT~~!!! It was truly a dream come true for 4 young girls. (Jodi and I didn't have a wedding dress to play with because our parents eloped to Indiana 17 DAYS after they met - and got married in "suits".)

What I found out just last night, was that it wasn't Maryln who gave the permission to the girls to play with her Wedding Dress; it was Leland. He said, "What good is it doing lying up in the attic?" We Fritz girls didn't know WHO gave the permission - just that is was okay, so play, we did! I cannot tell you how many times we "married each other" in the front yard of the Shattuck's house, with cars of people going by constantly, seeing us and possibly thinking, "look at those little girls having fun playing dress-up".

Now, I have to confess something here today, as I did last night to the younger Shattuck girls. I asked them, "When you played with the Wedding Dress, was there a piece of tulle at the bottom that was ripped and hanging?" "Yes", they said.... Well, I was the culprit. After one of our "mock ceremonies", we were running toward the house, (I, obviously was the "bride" that day) and my shoe caught on the bottom of the dress. (Shirley and Darlene laughed and said, "Yes, Gail was the ORIGINAL "Run-Away Bride".) I heard the ri-ii-ip and started crying. I was sure I was going to get beat or yelled at or whatever by Maryln (right~!)and that we would never again have the joy of playing with the dress. But that didn't happen. We still played with it many more times and then, according to MaryLee and Janiece, they also played with it until it was just worn out - ripped tulle and all.

Now, you ask, how in the world is this a tribute to Maryln?

Maryln became the Bride of Christ many years ago and has been waiting for the call from the Bridegroom that it is time for the Wedding to take place. At the present moment in her life, she is almost ready to walk down the aisle and be Welcomed by the Bridegroom of all times. She has fought cancer for many years; going into remission and then having it appear again, only metastasized to many other parts of her body. It appears that she only has a mere few days, at best, left here on this earth. But, as she has prepared for years to meet her Bridegroom (Jesus Christ), she has not been one to always be out-in-front or real verbal. But touch lives, she has. Go to the Website (lmshattuck.com) set up for her right now and you will read message after message to the family of how Maryln in her own quiet way, has touched hundreds of lives. That is all Christ asks us to do. We are not all the Head or the Eye or the Back of the "body", but it takes every single part; the fingers, the toes, the unseen organs - such as the liver, the gall bladder, etc. for us to be "ONE" body in Christ.

Maryln might not have thought of letting us play with her Wedding Dress, but Leland - looking at it from a different point of view, could see that "The Dress" could still bring joy and happiness to lots of little girls - and therefore, he urged her to let them play with it. Isn't that just like so many of us - we need nudges or urging from other Christian friends along the way, to use a "gift" that we don't even consider one of our Spiritual Gifts from God~~!

Today, Maryln, I don't know how many hours are left before you meet your Bridegroom face-to-face, but I want you and your family to know, that many, many generations older and younger than you, of family, relatives, friends and neighbors have watched you prepare to be that beautiful Bride getting ready to meet her Bridegroom. We are thankful for whatever you have taught us while you were in the that process, and for what your life did for us as we are in the same "preparation process".

It is with great JOY and ANTICIPATION, (although humanly speaking - we are sorry for OUR loss), that we hand you over to the Bridegroom who is "waiting with open arms to take you as HIS BRIDE~~!"

Revelations 21:2 (NLT) "And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband."