What's Love Got To Do With It?

As the indomitable Tina Turner wailed so brilliantly, "What's Love Got To Do With It?"

Actually, a heck of a lot. Love is kinda the point, right? My brother Rex was all about the love. His greatest joy in life was showing his love for everyone in his path. He didn't discriminate on who he gave his affection, time and attention to. As you remember from my book, that didn't always work out in his favor. He was almost killed, he was taken advantage of, he was ridiculed, he was rejected and yet, like a balloon full of helium, he always managed to rise above it and resume his quest to show love to everyone.

Rex paid no attention to holidays reserved for love, everyday was Valentine's Day for him. I wish you could have known him in person. If you did, you would have felt the same way as one of his Hospice massage therapist's wrote about him after his passing:

"Dear Heather (and family),

I just want to thank you so much for the opportunity to have spent time in your midst and, in particular, with Rex.

When Rex would say (as I'm sure he did to so many - friends and "strangers" alike) " I just want you to know that I love you"- I would hear him with such depth in my heart, for I knew that was the place in him where it came from.

"God is love, and whoever lives in love lives in union with God and God lives in union with him...There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear." (1 John 4:16)

I have to say I don't think I have ever felt so in the presence of the pure essence of Love (God) as when in your home - for you all give that. Thank you so much. Rex was, in his unique way, a true blessing and also truly blessed to have lived - and died - in the ever comforting arms of Love.

Your Servant -
Linda Sherman

I have enclosed a poem by a friend of mine- Rex was our partner as "we move, we dance, we grow...to unsuspected new horizons."  God Bless

Love is movement:
from darkness to light
from thought to action
from ignorance to wisdom-
partnered with time
we move
we dance
we grow

But whether we plod through a day
travel the world or fly to the moon
the movements that count
the ones we remember
are gentle shifts within ourselves:

the letting go of an old resentment
the subtle step from fear to trust
the daring leap from the safe and known
to see if we can fly
the softening breath of forgiveness
the guarded move toward self-acceptance
or the lifting of the inner eye
from a clutched and treasured pain
to unsuspected new horizons

Annelou Perrenoud
1987

As Rex would say:
"Hello, my friend, glad to see you. I love you no matter what.
And if you don't like it, Tough Luck!"




Happy Valentine's Day, With All Our Love

Heather, Rob and family