Introducing Ms Angie
By
Barry Drake
Sue asked me if I would write a little something to introduce Angie to you. I told her that I would love to do that but where would I start. Angie and I were soul mates for over 42 years. Did I say “soul mates”? That sounds like something from the 1960's. Well that is where it all started. I met Angie for the second time in 1966. We had actually grown up together in the same community, same church and our fathers worked together in the paper mill in the nearby town. The problem was that I was 6 years older than she was but now she was sixteen and what a beauty she was. In case you are not good with math, that made me twenty-two. Angie said after our first date that she knew we were meant to be together and six months later, we were married.
We were both born and raised in church. Angie’s mother was playing the piano the night Angie was born. Her mother left the church and went to the hospital and Frances Angeline Russell was born, November 19th, 1950. Oh yes, did I tell you that we were both born Baptist?
As you will tell by some of Angie’s writings, she knew the Lord at a very young age. Her special relationship with Him started as early as age 5 when her father died. One of her first stories will be about the death of her father. She also knew at a young age that she would marry a preacher. When we got married, I was pretty far from anything that even looked like a preacher but I later came around. I had spent my college years playing “Rock & Roll”.
Angie went on to graduate from high school and got an associate degree in business from college. She raised two boys, had several successful businesses of her own, was a teacher’s aide and a nurse’s aide, as well as managing an office supply company for 10 years while we lived in Austin, Texas.
You will hear from some of her stories that everything was not roses. While on the outside our marriage was one to be envied but it was not that way at home. And I was a preacher. At mile marker 22 (22 years) we almost lost it. But with some good Christian counseling, we made it through. The next 20 years were the best of our lives, even though we lost our house, I was diagnosed with post polio and went into a wheelchair, Angie came down with cancer, our older son was killed in a car wreck, and I could go on. Through it all, God was good and He was our strength.
I think I’ll just stop here because you will learn so much more through her writings. My prayer is that you will be blessed and encourage in your Christian walk by Angie’s writings. May you be richly blessed.
Barry Drake
