Mphy
69. Trust in God

The year of 1980 was not without blessings. On August 5, 1980
Alphy and Margurita celebrated their forty-fifth wedding anniversary. It
was a beautiful sunny day and the family gathered together for the
afternoon at Jacques Cartier Park. The couple’s children and grand-
children gathered around to wish the couple a happy anniversary. Alphy
and Margurita smiled at their loved ones and that day they felt blessed.

The men in the crowd had gathered a few picnic tables together,
so that the family could enjoy a meal under the shade of a large tree.
After the meal was over Alphy and Margurita took a stroll along the
beach, walking side by side on the sand. There was not a cloud in the
sky, as the rolling waves splashed gently to the shore. The couple
looked very charming. Margurita wore a light blue dress and Alphy
wore a beige cotton shirt and dark trousers. The couple chatted intently
as they walked. There was a certain confidence and intimacy between
them, that only comes from truly knowing one another. They had
shared much between them in their married life. Perhaps the most
difficult experience they shared was to watch their children suffer, while
being helpless to take away the pain.

Alphy and Margurita continued their walk along the shore; they
didn’t look back, and soon their children had lost sight of them over
the horizon. The couple returned hours later - Alphy was carrying
something in his hands. It was a granite rock, which the couple had
found on the beach. The rock was a beautiful dapple-gray colour,
speckled with silver dust.

At the end of the day, the couple took the rock home with
them. Later Alphy chiseled the following words in the rock - TRUST
IN GOD. The rock remains in the Doucette household to this day, a
symbol of the couple’s devotion. Their trust in God was the foundation
of their relationship, and the ‘rock’ that helped them weather life’s
Storms.

141