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