Remembering Melinda on TV

Fox 25 in Oklahoma City just did a great piece on Sandi Troup and the SHOUT organization she co-founded. She talks about many of the same things she mentioned in her memory below, and she shows off the Live, Love, Smile memory bracelets that Becky designed for Team Evans this year. From all reports, the Race for the Cure was a big success this year in OKC. Team Evans had at least 145 people walking in honor of Melinda, the biggest non-corporate group there from what we here. The video is embedded on the Fox 25 website so I can't post it here, and it is at the top of their "Top Stories" section until a new Top Story comes along. I think I may have found a solution.

To see Sandi's video follow my easy 3-step guide.

1) Highlight the "paragraph" below this step and copy it into your clipboard (Ctrl-C on Windows computers)

javascript:selectvideo('320x240,kokh_top_stories_BreastCancer.flv',story0,'','',417)

2) Go the the Fox 25 Top Stories page by following the link below step 3. (You have to read Step 3 before you go.)

3) Paste (Ctrl-V) the contents of your clipboard into your browser's address bar at the top and hit Enter. The SHOUT video should play.

Fox 25 (OKC) Top Stories video page

A Great Friend

My first memories of Melinda were a long time ago at the OU Outreach Center. At that time, I didn't know them personally, but her and Mark were around occasionally and even then, I knew there was something special between the two of them.
Anyways, my life went on, and several years later, I met my husband and we got married and started looking for a lifegroup to join. We ended up finding the Evans/Vaughn lifegroup, and never went anywhere else. Over the years, our lifegroup "multiplied" and we found ourselves in a small group with just a few families. It was then that I began to really get to know Melinda. She was so awesome! I have never met anyone more honest, more heartfelt, and more positive. She cared about people, all of them, and always had a listening ear or shoulder to lean on. I always knew I could count on her for anything, and she was the one I called when I went through a tough time in my marriage. Her support and comfort meant the world to me, and I will never forget it. It is no surprise that a few years later, when I was pregnant, she was the one I wanted to talk to. Everyone who knew Melinda could not miss the fact that she ADORED her children, and that being a mom was the most important thing to her. I feel like Melinda shared so much, and although many days I am very sad that she is not still here sharing life with all of us, I know that she would want us to celebrate her life and love her kids as much as she did. I miss you so much, Melinda, and thank you for all the comfort, advice, love and laughter that you shared with me. ~Kim Guenther

Putting Others First

Melinda and Mark have always put others before themselves, and have always been genuinely concerned for others. I went to visit Melinda in the hospital the last day she was in ICU before moving to a regular room. She was tired and still losing her breath if she spoke too much. I wanted to know how she was doing and everything that was going on, but Melinda just kept asking about me and my family. She never forgot what was going on in my life, even if it had been a month since we last talked. Melinda wanted to know how we were doing and how Paul was holding up. My father-in law passed away July 7, 2007 and Melinda was the first person I called. It was 6:30 am that we found him and I called her at 6:45 am and asked her if she could come pick up our three little girls. She said "Sure, let me brush my teeth and I'll be right over." She was here by 7 o'clock. Her and Mark watched the girls for us all day so we could get things in order around the house and have some time to cry before trying to comfort our girls. I just want to say thank you Mark and Melinda for all you have done. I hope that in some way we can be as much of a blessing to others as you have been to us. Melinda I will miss you dearly and was blessed to have encountered such a wonderful friendship in this lifetime....We love you Mark, Marli, Marcus, and Manning and are here for you if you need us.

LaRee Whitfield

Loving On People

In early June 2007, I received a call from my friend Mark on a Friday afternoon asking if he and Melinda and the kids could stop by and bring something to Adrianne and I. While I didn’t know exactly what they were up to, my gut feeling told me that our friends had decided to spend some time “loving on people” that afternoon. Although it wasn’t very difficult for me to guess what they were up to, I didn’t realize at the time how meaningful that event would become for Adrianne and I.

About a year earlier (and shortly after Melinda had been diagnosed with breast cancer), Mark and I were talking over lunch and the conversation turned to how cancer might affect their day-to-day lives. While some others (likely including me) might have decided upon a once-in-a-lifetime vacation or perhaps a new swimming pool for the backyard, Mark said that he and Melinda didn’t want to make any significant changes to their routine. He said that the main thing that they had discussed was that they wanted to “love on people” as much as possible because that was what was really important to them. Although I wasn’t completely sure I understood what that would look like, I knew that it would be a blessing to anyone who was on the receiving end of that decision.

It was not long before Adrianne and I got to see exactly what Mark meant. Mark and Melinda and the kids came over to our house that Friday afternoon in June with a basket filled with gifts which Melinda said were supposed to help reduce my anxiety after a very tough couple weeks for me. Earlier that day, I had resigned from my position at work in what had been a tremendously difficult decision. Sometime that week, Melinda had gone to the grocery store and bought Adrianne and I all kinds of wonderful treats – wine and cheese, crackers, cookies and other goodies just to name a few. I could tell that the gift was vintage Melinda – she told us a little bit about each item that she included and why she had included it, all the while beaming with a huge smile on her face. She wanted to know how the day had gone, how the news had been received by my co-workers and how I felt the change would work out for our family. Even though she could have asked me at our soccer game the next day, or Adrianne at a ladies’ event the following week or even Mark later that night, Melinda was genuinely concerned about me in a way that is all too uncommon for the rest of us.

While the snacks and goodies were all wonderful and disappeared from our pantry long ago, it is our memory of the circumstances in which we acquired them that has become a treasure to us. It of course reminds us of the day that we were “loved on” by our friends Mark and Melinda and encourages us to look for ways to “love on people” even a small portion of the way that Melinda did. This is only one of many “acts of kindness” that Melinda shared with us over the years that we knew her, but it is one that we will never forget. We miss you Melinda and have been forever changed to have counted you as our friend. With love, Mike and Adrianne Hodges