Enchantment in Atl

By Marian Olivia Heath Griffin

This narrative is about the death of a mother with four young daughters—two of them teenagers—and three sons in the navy. One daughter was in college at Delaware State University and was betrayed by a special college friend, which caused a dramatic breakup between the two.

With tears in her eyes and a saddened broken heart, the older sister, Marian, sacrificed everything back home, including leaving her two younger sisters, to complete her education in Atlanta, Georgia.

With the help of the Holy Spirit and a newfound relationship, which became her husband, Marian began to heal and become whole again. Toward the later years of her life, she revisits her earlier years of difficulties and hardships and ponders how far she and her family have come. She realizes that the most important side of life is that God will be there with us always. Just pray!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796039238

Marian Olivia Heath Griffin

Marian Olivia Heath Griffin lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with her husband of fifty-eight years. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor and College Administrator (retired) for thirty-six years, the last seven years as Director of International Student Affairs. After she retired from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, she decided to utilize her degree in Mass Communication and Photography to tell her people’s stories and history. Griffin graduated from Delaware State University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology and Psychology, a Master’s Degree program in Atlanta University School of Social Work, a Master’s Degree program at Gammon Theological Seminary of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. She received her Master’s Degree from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in Psychological Counseling and Social Work. She received a Master’s Degree in Educational Supervision and Mass Communication and Photography from Southern University. She did further study at Louisiana State University and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She studied Genealogy at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library in Baton Rouge. She has traveled over the fifty states of the U.S. and six of the seven continents. She has written eighteen books in two years, published them with XLIBRIS and compiled and published two photo books with MYCANVAS BY ALEXANDER. She is proud of her three children: Rev. Bertrand, II (Rev. Kotosha Seals Griffin), Karen G. Phenix, (Keith Phenix) and Dr. Michael (Tracie Haydel Griffin). She adores her eight grandchildren: Nia, Kiara, Christian-Paris, Michael, II. Amelia-Grai, Victoria, Olivia and Sophia – all Griffins and one god-child, Whitney White, one great grandchild – Keomi Phenix, one great- godchild, Amelia Pleasant and her brother, Warren, six great- nieces, Whitney Foucheaux, Amoree Sanders, and Danee Heath, Tikia and Lentia Brown, and great nephews: Bobbie, Jr., Enrique and Alberto Garcia, Tyler Heath, Lauren and Kee Kee Dennis, Arshawon Brown (recently deceased), Willie, Jermaine. Brown, Michael Martin and sons, and Devonte Walker.

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Copyright © 2019 by Marian Olivia Heath Griffin.

Library of Congress Control Number:     2019907204

ISBN:                  Hardcover                        978-1-7960-3925-2

                            Softcover                          978-1-7960-3924-5

                            eBook                               978-1-7960-3923-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Website

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 06/06/2019

Xlibris

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CONTENTS

Author’s Notes

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter I             Enchantment Through Prayer

Chapter II           The Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary After Party

Chapter III          Journey From Home

Chapter IV          A Prayer Miracle

Chapter V           The Proverbial Blind Date

Chapter VI          First Things First

Chapter VII        Talking About Noah’s Ark

Chapter VIII       Bertrand, The Encourager

Chapter IX          A ‘Come Here’ Person

Chapter X            Two Rings Clash

Chapter XI          Mother’s Silence

Chapter XII         A Special Moment

Chapter XIII       Let’s Marry Sooner Than Later

Chapter XIV       The Two Men Meet

Chapter XV         Two Rings

Chapter XVI       The Path Made By God

Chapter XVII     Poor But Rich In Love

Chapter XVIII    One Loaf Of Bread And A Quarter

Chapter XIX       Jesus Fed The Five Thousand Men Plus Women

Chapter XX        The Last Supper

Chapter XXI       The Move To A New Home

Chapter XXII     Song Of Songs

Chapter XXIII    Families Connected

Chapter XXIV    Our Extended Family And Friends

Conclusion

Bibliography

Reference Books

Resources

AUTHOR’S NOTES

T HE MOMENT I said ‘I do’, during our wedding ceremony, my life changed forever. I was no longer the same person. I no longer had the same name. I was born Marian Olivia Heath.

I was married Marian Heath Griffin. My husband, Bertrand has always said, the impossible happened. This was not just the beginning of change for me.

Here’s how it started. Where did we meet? What was the mystery behind our first date? What events occurred to make this happen?

I had planned to attend the University of Pennsylvania for graduate school. I had applied there as well as Atlanta University. Over the summer, I had a change of heart and went to Atlanta University instead of the University of Pennsylvania.

I graduated from Delaware State University four months after my mother died. I moved on to attend graduate school at Atlanta University School of Social Work in the Fall of 1961.

I met Bertrand Griffin on a ‘blind date’ that next spring around the middle of April.

My mother died fourteen months before my husband, Bertrand and I were married. My mother would have attended my wedding if she had been alive. No family members on either side were present. My siblings, my father and my uncles and aunts were not in attendance. My husband’s parents and siblings were not there.

I used to dream of a large wedding with all the trimmings and loved ones in attendance when I was a young teenager, just like the ones shown on TV and in the movies.

Cindy Hess Kasper said, in OUR DAILY BREAD, most of us like to look good. We want to appear that we have it all together with no struggles, fears, temptations or heartaches.

Trying to maintain a façade of perfection on our spiritual journey doesn’t help us or our fellow travelers. We are a bit more transparent. As we enjoy a growing fellowship with God and become more aware of our brokenness and inadequacy, God is able to use us more fully to help ourselves and others.

We may find people who are struggling in a similar situation as we are.

After Mother died, I didn’t want to get married. I realized that my mother and I were extremely co-dependent on each other. She always told me, Don’t get married until you finish college.

Mother knew that I was being pressured to get married right after high school. Many of my friends and classmates did get married and started having families immediately.

Again, I was pressured to get married before I finished college.

To me, what Mother said was gospel. Weddings are very personal, yet the world and the heavens take part in them.

Colleen Townsend expressed it best. The hardest thing to understand is that faith is the one area in our lives where growing up means we must grow to be more like a child. We must trust simply in the goodness and complete knowledge of a Father who has our best interest at heart.

Loving parents show us the way. I had a lot of faith in my mother and things she told me. I had to move that faith over to the God Almighty who sustains and keeps us.

Paul wrote to the Colossians, Set your mind on things above, not on earthy things. (Colossians 3:2, NIV.)

Storoni, the author of STRESS PROOF, stated that resilience is fostered when we’re optimistic about the overall picture or about the eventual future. Setbacks that you experience here and now are offset by optimism for days to come. Your self -esteem or self-opinion should be garnished with memories of how strong you have been, and hence can be in a crisis situation. (p. 18.)

People with grit have an unshakable long-term aspiration or hope that keeps them going in the face of countless failures and disappointments miring the present. (p. 180.)

I had many disappointments and setbacks notwithstanding my grief from losing my mother during my last semester in college. I told my fiancé to never come back to see me again since he did not come during my mother’s illness and death. We had dated four years in college. When he sustained a knee injury playing football and had to have two surgeries, he still came the see me from Charlotte, North Carolina to Delaware State University.

On the eve of my mother’s death, he did not show up. I sat at home all night waiting on him to show. My whole family went to the hospital to see my mother.

In moments like this, I had to obey the exhortations of the apostle Paul and realize that I was a child of God, totally loved, fully accepted and forgiven.

That was definitely not easy to do.

I returned to college after the Christmas and New Year ‘s holidays. My mother was still in the hospital in a coma. After promising to come see my mother in the hospital, Ulysses was a no-show.

In my grief, I became very angry. If I could not depend on an individual when I needed him most, I did not need him ever. It took him two weeks to write to me and inform me his car broke down and he could not get a ride up to my house in Delaware from North Carolina to see my mother before she died. The buses were still running!

At that time, I realized that there are things you have to live through. Everyone does not experience your pain and know the magnitude of your hurt and pain.

In the meantime, I was sitting in class after my mother’s funeral, doing nothing. One teacher put me out of her class. I walked out vowing never to go back. When that snow and ice hit my face as I was going to my dormitory room to pack, I knew I had to stay in school.

I went back to my class, as my classmates were leaving the classroom. I waited on Miss Thompson to get to her office.

Miss Heath, she said.

I am not going to drop out of school. I have to finish, I said.

But you are not doing anything in my class and I suspect that you are not doing anything in anyone’s class, she said.

My mother died but she would expect me to finish college.

Tionne Watkins, in her book, A SICK LIFE, said, "I believe everything happens for a reason. You