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.

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