Butter Pecan

They were on a fact finding trip, looking for a company that would manufacture a machine that was going to revolutionize the contact lens manufacturing business.  It was going to do it all - from the lens to the packaging process.  The team consisted of some mechanical engineers (Rich Suhey was one) and some research and development engineers (Mary Dolan was one).

They visited a company in Bradenton, Florida and stayed over night at a Holiday Inn near St. Armand's Circle on the Gulf of Mexico. 

And so it was that after dinner, the team went for ice cream.

Rich (who was about 15 years older than Mary) ordered butter pecan.

Mary told him that butter pecan was for "old people".

She remembered that when she worked in an ice cream shop as a teenager that it was always the "old people" who wanted butter pecan.

As it happened, Mary and I became good friends and I married Rich Suhey.

And then he died.

15 years ago yesterday. 

And Mary went to the grocery store and bought some butter pecan ice cream.

November 17 is not just a day that I remember as the day Rich died.  Because it is also the day that my second daughter was born.  So it's a day of mixed blessings for me.

But isn't that really what life is all about?

The smooth, rich taste of butter pecan ice cream -- has a lot of calories.

It's good and it's bad.

My life was forever changed - first when I married Rich Suhey and then when after just 8 months, I became his widow.  In the 15 years since, I have been able to complete my college degree, purchase a home, and work part time while I cared for my parents - something about J and J stock and his pension. 

I'm not one to focus on finances, much too black and white for me.  However, I am one to focus on the way God supplies our need.  And I have no doubt but that my needs are supplied - and partly because of the man who liked butter pecan ice cream.