Congratulations !
You have been awarded points.
Thank you for !
- Story Listed as: Fiction For Adults
- Theme: Inspirational
- Subject: Faith / Hope
- Published: 05/20/2013
Jaxon King: A Walk with Magdalene Rose
Born 1983, M, from Elmira, NY, United StatesJaxon King
As I sit here listening to Theresa Speak, I can only think of how powerful her story is. I am a man in his early thirty’s, I am larger than most in stature, about as fit as the best athletes, but I am crying like an infant over this woman’s life. I can barely gather myself, as I get ready to speak. I have had many “big” moments in my life. From championship high school basketball games, to corporate sales presentations more recently, but I have never felt so many nerves and emotions, as I do now in this moment. As I look into the crowd, I gain confidence as I lock eyes with Brooklyn. I know that this message is much more important, than my nerves. So I blow her a kiss, give Theresa a hug, and approach the micro phone:
The Good Old Days
Hello everyone, I am Jaxon. Friends used to call me “action Jaxon” and you may as well too. I am personally glad to be here today, to show and tell how Ms. Maggie has changed my life. I would not say I was a troubled kid in high school, but I definitely was not a model student. I did not fall to peer pressure, so to speak, but I fell into the mold of the cultural norms of my peers in high school. This included: sexual experiences, experimenting with drugs and alcohol, among the other things that teens go through during high school. The one thing that I always struggled with was commitment; Commitment to high school sweet hearts and commitment to grades and such. Especially girlfriends, I was always cheating on this one, and sneaking around with that one. I could not stay faithful to save my life. If you looked at me then, you would say, this boy isn’t going to amount to nothing at all. You see, I broke a lot of rules, and I broke a lot of hearts, One heart in particular.
As I go on telling the crowd about the various issues that I struggled with during that age, I am continuously reminded of one girl that I had throughout high school. Her name was Charlene. She was a very cute girl, and someone I knew from the age of 5. She grew up in the same poor neighborhood as me, here in upstate New York, and we were always somewhat connected somehow. Rather it is from class, or playing around the neighbor hood, and during high school, she was my first and only real form of a relationship. I can remember a time, where I lost her for good, and began my road to destruction. It was my junior year, and I and Charlene were all set for Prom, but about a month before the prom, she went to visit her brother at Buffalo University for the entire weekend. I decided to take full advantage of this free time, and have some fun with some friends, who had been pressuring me for spending all my time with Charlene. I was the star Center for the high school basketball team, and some teammates were throwing a party at a teammate of ours home. His parents left him with the house for the weekend, so our starting points guard Jamel, decided to throw a party. When me and a couple other guys from the team, showed up at the house, we discovered that this was not a small get together like usual. This was a full out-“banger”, as we used to call it. There were plenty of girls and plenty of alcohol to go around for days. I think back now, and I recognize this is the perfect recipe for disaster. As the party went on, I remember feeling very excited. This is what I have been missing, I thought to myself, I am Free!
Back then cell phones and stuff were not really available, so without Charlene having any ability to get a hold of me, I found it very easy to forget that she even existed. I was having too much fun, to be worried about a girlfriend. I thought, now I see what my friends are talking about, this is the life. The part went on, and it began to digress, when the head cheerleader came up to me and grabbed my hand. The next thing I knew, we're in Jamel’s parents’ bedroom, and we were “hooking up”. I could not believe it; I thought: how sweet is this? I’m between the sheets, with the hottest girl in school. So many thoughts and feelings ran through my mind during that night, the only thing I did not think about was Charlene. She was the last thing I was thinking about. I enjoyed every minute of that night. I enjoyed it so much, I found myself trying to repeat it almost every night, or at least every weekend. Charlene quickly caught on to my scheme, and dropped me like a bad habit. I mean, how cruel was I? She was devastated over the break up and I didn’t even bat an eye. In fact, I found the break up to be a relief. Now I had even more to time, to have some real fun. I can recall every weekend of my junior and senior year, partying and “hooking up” with different girls. I had a motto, every weekend, another party and a different girl. I loved it!
Back To Reality
I did have one thing that I committed wholeheartedly to, during the school days, and that was sports. I tell you folks, I road that false sense of reality all the way to college. I was very athletic, and very sports minded. I was offered a full athletic scholarship to Cornell University, about an hour away from my home town. I thought to myself, “I have it Made”. Now I have a car, Full scholarship, a better ratio of woman and parties. Boy was I wrong.
I thought to myself, I could take my former behavior in high school and simply apply it to the conditions of this campus life style. I majored in Business management, and made friends pretty easily on the basketball team. This was the time that we find who we are, right? At least that is what the campus brochure said. But I had one advantage, because I already knew who I was and what I was going to be….So I thought anyways. It was not until one huge mistake one night after a big game, that ultimately sent me to come crashing down to earth:
Now as I remember and look back on my college life, I really thought I had the world in the palms of my hands. I was still following my normal tradition of, every weekend different party, hook up with a different girl. Only this time the women were more diverse and more populated. But this all came to pass, when my ego and my backwards lifestyle got in the way, and ruined everything. It started at a huge party, and one of the Frat houses, after we won a local basketball tournament. I went along as normal. It was my second year in, and I already was very popular with the girls on campus, as well as fellow teammates. I found myself, basking in the glory of what I deemed as “the Life”. I truly had no worry in the world; there was nothing that could take me down from this high. I could have anything that I wanted, my grades were good enough to stay eligible, and I was having fun every single day on campus. Again, I can remember not having a single worry in the world. But this night ended up different than the other nights. I met this girl…I cannot even remember her name, that was from the local town near the college. She caught my attention at the party, and kept my attention the whole night. The girl was very attractive, and easy to get along with. One thing I liked was her enthusiasm to do us favors. Anything, from refilling my cup, to making about 2 or 3 beer runs for the party. The night went as normal, a lot of fun and a new girl by my side. But when I woke up the next morning, I quickly realized that the girl was gone. I brushed it off like every other time, gathered my things and headed towards the dorms to sleep in a little more before my next class. I awoke from my nap to loud “banging” at my door. I opened the door and it was three Sheriffs from the local town, and they had four of my teammates. These Sheriffs were called by some Judge from the local town, apparently his daughter went missing the night before, and returned in the morning completely drunk. I thought at the time that this had nothing to do with us, so why are we involved. Come to find out, that judge’s daughter, was the girl of my dreams from the night before. Even so, I thought what was the big deal? She is an adult. Well, come to find out this young lady was only 17 years old, and a senior in High School. This news hit us hard, and so did the school. Due to the fact that no one could really remember who she was, or who brought her there, all of us were expelled from school and sent back to our home towns. This was a dreadful feeling. I felt a little ashamed, and mostly embarrassed.
To think, I was on top of the world, and now I am lower than dirt. I could barely hold my head up above my shoulders that last day on campus. For the first time in my life I felt weak, and unworthy of any praise. It even got worse when I saw a classmate of mine, Brooklyn. She was a girl from Albany, who never showed any sexual interest in me, but was always there to help me with school work. I and she used to talk about everything, but she did not party much. She was one of those that were really focused on school. Over all she was a very cool girl, but I could not even respond to her questions of where I was going, and what I was doing. I just shook my head, and continued on, jumped in my car, and began heading back home.
It was after this huge mistake, when I finally felt mortal. It took me to be expelled from school, to bring me back to Earth, at least so I thought. But as I rode home, many of my actions and behaviors ran through my mind, as I tried to figure out how I got to this point. This was a very tough process for me, I never had to evaluate myself like this ever before. But as soon as I touched down in my home town, it was not very long before I returned back to normal me. I continued to party, bend the rules, and most of all, I continued to treat women like disposable cameras. Use them for a weekend or a special event, throw them to the side, and get a new one. All these behaviors remained the same over the next few years. I took my charismatic personality and became a successful car sales man, in my home town. I made good money, drove a nice car, and got back together with some old friends from high school. Business as usual, is what we would say, when we would plan out our weekends. All these things seemed to fuel my life. that was until the doctor’s appointment, when I received the statement that my life had an expiration date, and the day I met Magdalene Rose.
I could still envision that day as I walked into the doctor’s office. I was suffering some type of sickness for about a month before this moment. I experienced rapid weight loss, and severe stomach pain. I usually drank the pain away, but at this point I had no choice, I had to see a doctor. I remember pulling up in the parking lot, and seeing a little girl standing against the building wall, with ear buds in, listening to what I assumed was an IPod of some sort. She was sitting there in a worn sun dress, an old pair of black Chuck Taylors, and playing with her fingers. Kind of as if, she was playing the “Itsy Bitsy Spider song”. But as I walked closer, I could tell that she was singing a totally different song, a song that remains to ring in my thoughts and dreams to this day…..In a soft-slow-haunting but sweet voice, I heard it:
“This little light of mine
I’m ganna Let it shine
Ohh this little light of mine
I’m ganna let it shine.”
For some very odd reason, I was completely captivated by this little girl. I found myself feeling refreshing comfort, from her song. It was unexplainable. I kept on to my appointment, as I walked by her to get to the office door. I thought to myself, this is not a pediatric office; she must be here with her parents.
After waiting a while for the doctor, we decided to run some tests, and blood work. About an hour goes by, and my doctor comes back to the room. I immediately knew something was wrong. The easy-going, jokester of a doctor was gone, and now came a somber and serious version of the same guy. I remember feeling very nervous for no apparent reason, but the vibe he was giving off seemed to suit these feelings. He pulled up his chair to mine, looked me dead in the eyes, and informed me that I had a form of liver cancer. This was a true test of my mortality. For the first time, I felt weak and not in control. As rabid butterflies filled my stomach, I desperately asked if I was going to die. Very bluntly he responded that I had about a 30 percent chance of making it the next six months, and suggested that I make some dramatic life changes in order to have a fighting chance. He left me in the office, as I sat there with my entire life flashing before my eyes again. I thought why is this happening to me? What did I do to deserve this? I partied along side of many other people, some were actually worse than me, and still; I am going to die? I can honestly say at this point of my life, I was lost.
I tell you, receiving this news, a death sentence if you will, Was actually a blessing in disguise. That day in the doctor’s office, was the first day of the rest of my life. From that point on my life and my mind began to shift into a new version of myself. With the help of dear Maggie, I was able to embrace this situation, and give death a run for its money.
Over the next few days, I dealt with this news all alone. I had not even gone to fill the prescription that the doctor gave me the day of the appointment. So this third day of grieving I decided, I better make my way to this follow up appointment. I felt like just giving up, saying forget this world, and just let go. It was way too difficult to try to fight something that I was almost guaranteed to lose. Nonetheless, something got me up that morning. And something gave me the strength to go to this appointment. So, I got dressed and made my way over to the doctor’s office. By my surprise, when I pulled into the parking lot, I saw that same little girl leaning up against the building wall. I thought, this cannot be the same girl, from the other day, how odd is this? But low and behold, when I began walking towards the door, I heard her singing a very familiar song:
“This little light of mine
I’m ganna let it shine
Ohh this little light of mine,
I’m ganna let it shine”
But this time, she glared at me walking through the parking lot, towards the office door. She looked at me, and turned and went into the office. I thought maybe, that she may have been scared being outside by herself, or something. At the time I did not put much thought into it, I had bigger issues at hand. As I walked up to the secretary to give her my name, I noticed that the little girl was sitting by herself in the waiting room. It was a small waiting room, so I had no choice but to sit across from her. I remember sitting there in somewhat of a deep depression. I found myself questioning why I was even at the appointment. It was a complete waste of time; I am going to die anyways. As these many thoughts were running through my mind, I heard the sweet tender voice of the ten year old for the first time. And it was in the form of a question:
“why do doctors’ offices bring so much sadness?”
I did not even respond, I thought she must be talking to herself, plus I was in no form to discuss my situation with this little girl, but then she spoke more direct.
“Hello sir, I am Magdalene Rose.”
“Hi, I am Jaxon”, I replied.
“Why are you so down sir?” she gently asked.
I just wiped my eyes with my hands, and ignored her request for information, but she would not let me go.
“You know sir, someone has a purpose for you, for you to prosper and do great things with hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11).
To be honest, when she said this I thought it was very corny. I thought, this little girl went to too many Sunday school classes. So I just kept on to my appointment.
As I left the appointment, I could not help but to dwell on the words that this little girl spoke. I kept thinking thoughts of prosperity and a future and all the things I wanted to accomplish. This was odd for me, because I always just based my life on “right now”, never down the road. But with this news from the doctor, and the conversation with Magdalene, I could not help to think of the life I could have, if I was not going to die. As these thoughts racked my brain, I found myself in front of the pharmacy, as if this was the time in my life where I had to make a choice. Am I going to fight this thing, or will I just let it ride. I sat in my car for about a half an hour debating this choice. Then I decided. I took a deep breath, picked up the prescription and headed for the door.
Old Friend-New Answers
My friends, I tell you that piece of advice that I received from Magdalene Rose, was not limited to one occasion. It was almost like she guided directly towards the answers I needed. Through her willingness to share her thoughts freely, I was able to become acquainted with an old friend, I was able to receive, not the answers I wanted, but the answers I needed. Maggie pointed something out to me that I never thought of before. She pointed out something that I never truly experienced, and never truly desired. Only at this point did I realize what my life was missing, and why these things were happening the way that they were. Let this be a lesson for the rest of us, that without love, nothing will prosper. I mean nothing at all.
I could feel tears begin to fill my eyes as I explained to the crowd the desperate importance of love. Just the mere mention of it, brings me back to what happened when I walked into that pharmacy. I walked up to the counter and handed my prescription, there must have been an issue with the dosage, because the clerk requested that the Pharmacist come and speak with me about it. When this female pharmacist came from behind her workstation, and began walking towards me, I was completely blown away. I began sweating for some reason, and butterflies filled my stomach. Then she came up, with an expression on her face as if she was suffering from the same physical symptoms.
“Jaxon?” she questioned. “Is that you?”
I could not believe it. It was Brooklyn, a friend from college, and she was as beautiful as she looked 6 or so years ago when I'd seen her last. This completely shocked me, and for that very moment I had lost all knowledge of why I was even there in the first place. Thoughts of death and this cancer were completely whipped out of my mind. I soon found out that she graduated from our college and became a pharmacist. She was not married and did not have any children, and moved to my home town, for employment purposes. But none of this mattered to be honest, I was just very happy to see her.
From that day forward, I made it a point to go to the pharmacy as many times as I could. I found myself lying to the doctor about the effects of the medication, so he can call me in a new prescription and I could go back to the pharmacy that day. Now that I think back, she must have thought I was a basket case, with all these new medications, but I did not care, when I spent those little moments with her it was as if nothing else could harm me. I can still feel the euphoria I felt after, she agreed to go out on a date with me, after about the twentieth visit to the pharmacy in only two weeks. The night we went out, was the first time in forever that I enjoyed time with a women, without sex, beer, or drugs being a part of the equation. To be honest it felt extremely refreshing.
After about six months of seeing each other at least once a week, I noticed that I did not even take any of the prescriptions that I piled up on over the past few months, and felt genuinely good. No aches, no pains, and no nausea. I called a doctor and made an appointment to explain what was going on, and made my way to the appointment, and without fail Magdalene was sitting in the waiting room. I always kind of joked that she was waiting there for me, but it must have just been a coincidence. As she sat in the chair of the waiting room coloring in the office coloring book, while listing to her headphones and humming her song, I tapped her on her shoulder, and told her the good news. I explained to her that it could not be explained, and things could not be any better. When I said this to her, she just turned and looked at me with a smile, then as the smile went away she looked at me with that familiar gaze, as if she was looking though me, and said,
“you know my papa always says, That if a Man finds a wife, that is very good, and then he will receive favor.” (Proverbs 18:22).
I thought to myself; “wife, what wife?” The only thing I could relate this to is Brooklyn, but I never told her about us reuniting. There is no way, I thought, so I just smiled back and went into my appointment.
Now is the Time
Throughout life, and through the times that I spent with Magdalene, I realized how important aspects such as Marriage are. You see, Marriage completes a man. All the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of a man are completely wiped away once he finds that perfect someone.
That certain someone can determine if your life is worth living for. At least this is what I learned. I decided from those days, spent with Maggie, that my life was not over but just beginning, and it wasn’t that my dreams and goals were dead, but that now I have new goals and dreams, that will provide hope and future.
I could not sleep that entire night; I could not help to think that what Maggie meant was that I get married to Brooklyn. I tossed and turned all night. The generation that I was brought up in taught me that marriage was bad. They all end badly, and you can be just as happy with staying single, and dating someone. But this thing, just kept tugging at me, I just could not seem to shake it. So I waited for a time that I thought was not too early to call, and I called Brooklyn at about 7am that next morning, to make plans for that weekend. She found it strange that I was calling her so early in the morning about something that was going to take place a couple days from now, nonetheless, she still agreed and the date was set.
Over the next couple days, this question of marriage really interfered with the rest of my life. I could not eat and I could barely sleep. I found myself observing the people around a lot more. From watching the boys on the corner flirting with every girl that walked by, some successful and some unsuccessful, and I remember when I used to do that. Then I found myself in a grocery store or the video store, and observing couples holding hands as they decide what they will make together for dinner, or what movie to watch on date night. I envied those people. Just watching them, I could feel the happiness and love radiating off of them, and I wanted that. It was something that I had been missing my whole life, that absolute completeness and feelings of extreme comfort in one another. So after a couple days of these observations I made my choice, and got ready for that date. We pulled up to the restaurant, and my heart was beating out of my chest. I did not speak a word the entire ride, afterwards she mentioned that she thought I was going to break it off, little did she know what I had in store. This night it just seemed that she looked more beautiful than ever, and as we waited in the waiting lobby for our table, I could not hold it in any longer, and blurted it out. I bent down on one knee, looked deep into her eyes, wiped my tears and she tried to hold back hers, and asked:
“Brooklyn, will you marry me?”
And she said yes. I do not even think we ate one bite of our food that evening, just spent the whole time kissing, hugging, and crying. This was the beginning, I could feel it. Things were going to become amazing. It only took us a month to put together a wedding, and we did it. Throughout the entire ceremony, I was on cloud nine. I can recall a couple of friends and family members saying on more than one occasion, while they were having a conversation with me, I would look away with a gaze; Either looking at my new bride, or just off in mid air. I suppose those were the times where I thought of Maggie. All together, this moment was the marker that announced my shift change. My life was complete, and finally on the right path.
The day I married my wife Brooklyn, was the happiest day of my life. Looking back at all the things that I had to go through, I am the luckiest man in the world, to have her in my life. In fact she has been an angel that was sent from above. Over the past few months, with meeting Maggie and experiencing love, I have had the feelings of a great burden lifted off of me. I recently went to the doctors to check the progress of my cancer, and the doctor found no traces of the cancer in my body.
As the crowd begins to give me a standing ovation for this tremendous news, tears and brief sadness came over me. Not because of the cancer, but because Maggie was not here to see this miracle. I swallowed my tears, and continued on, for the sake of Maggie, my life, and Love.
I have no doubt that this miracle was due to the experiences that I have had over the past 6 months or so, as well as the love that I finally understood. If it was not for Magdalene Rose, guiding me in the right direction, I would have never understood that Love proves miracles and God is Love. I love you Maggie, and I will miss you more than anything in the world.
Jaxon King: A Walk with Magdalene Rose(Larry Parker II)
Jaxon King
As I sit here listening to Theresa Speak, I can only think of how powerful her story is. I am a man in his early thirty’s, I am larger than most in stature, about as fit as the best athletes, but I am crying like an infant over this woman’s life. I can barely gather myself, as I get ready to speak. I have had many “big” moments in my life. From championship high school basketball games, to corporate sales presentations more recently, but I have never felt so many nerves and emotions, as I do now in this moment. As I look into the crowd, I gain confidence as I lock eyes with Brooklyn. I know that this message is much more important, than my nerves. So I blow her a kiss, give Theresa a hug, and approach the micro phone:
The Good Old Days
Hello everyone, I am Jaxon. Friends used to call me “action Jaxon” and you may as well too. I am personally glad to be here today, to show and tell how Ms. Maggie has changed my life. I would not say I was a troubled kid in high school, but I definitely was not a model student. I did not fall to peer pressure, so to speak, but I fell into the mold of the cultural norms of my peers in high school. This included: sexual experiences, experimenting with drugs and alcohol, among the other things that teens go through during high school. The one thing that I always struggled with was commitment; Commitment to high school sweet hearts and commitment to grades and such. Especially girlfriends, I was always cheating on this one, and sneaking around with that one. I could not stay faithful to save my life. If you looked at me then, you would say, this boy isn’t going to amount to nothing at all. You see, I broke a lot of rules, and I broke a lot of hearts, One heart in particular.
As I go on telling the crowd about the various issues that I struggled with during that age, I am continuously reminded of one girl that I had throughout high school. Her name was Charlene. She was a very cute girl, and someone I knew from the age of 5. She grew up in the same poor neighborhood as me, here in upstate New York, and we were always somewhat connected somehow. Rather it is from class, or playing around the neighbor hood, and during high school, she was my first and only real form of a relationship. I can remember a time, where I lost her for good, and began my road to destruction. It was my junior year, and I and Charlene were all set for Prom, but about a month before the prom, she went to visit her brother at Buffalo University for the entire weekend. I decided to take full advantage of this free time, and have some fun with some friends, who had been pressuring me for spending all my time with Charlene. I was the star Center for the high school basketball team, and some teammates were throwing a party at a teammate of ours home. His parents left him with the house for the weekend, so our starting points guard Jamel, decided to throw a party. When me and a couple other guys from the team, showed up at the house, we discovered that this was not a small get together like usual. This was a full out-“banger”, as we used to call it. There were plenty of girls and plenty of alcohol to go around for days. I think back now, and I recognize this is the perfect recipe for disaster. As the party went on, I remember feeling very excited. This is what I have been missing, I thought to myself, I am Free!
Back then cell phones and stuff were not really available, so without Charlene having any ability to get a hold of me, I found it very easy to forget that she even existed. I was having too much fun, to be worried about a girlfriend. I thought, now I see what my friends are talking about, this is the life. The part went on, and it began to digress, when the head cheerleader came up to me and grabbed my hand. The next thing I knew, we're in Jamel’s parents’ bedroom, and we were “hooking up”. I could not believe it; I thought: how sweet is this? I’m between the sheets, with the hottest girl in school. So many thoughts and feelings ran through my mind during that night, the only thing I did not think about was Charlene. She was the last thing I was thinking about. I enjoyed every minute of that night. I enjoyed it so much, I found myself trying to repeat it almost every night, or at least every weekend. Charlene quickly caught on to my scheme, and dropped me like a bad habit. I mean, how cruel was I? She was devastated over the break up and I didn’t even bat an eye. In fact, I found the break up to be a relief. Now I had even more to time, to have some real fun. I can recall every weekend of my junior and senior year, partying and “hooking up” with different girls. I had a motto, every weekend, another party and a different girl. I loved it!
Back To Reality
I did have one thing that I committed wholeheartedly to, during the school days, and that was sports. I tell you folks, I road that false sense of reality all the way to college. I was very athletic, and very sports minded. I was offered a full athletic scholarship to Cornell University, about an hour away from my home town. I thought to myself, “I have it Made”. Now I have a car, Full scholarship, a better ratio of woman and parties. Boy was I wrong.
I thought to myself, I could take my former behavior in high school and simply apply it to the conditions of this campus life style. I majored in Business management, and made friends pretty easily on the basketball team. This was the time that we find who we are, right? At least that is what the campus brochure said. But I had one advantage, because I already knew who I was and what I was going to be….So I thought anyways. It was not until one huge mistake one night after a big game, that ultimately sent me to come crashing down to earth:
Now as I remember and look back on my college life, I really thought I had the world in the palms of my hands. I was still following my normal tradition of, every weekend different party, hook up with a different girl. Only this time the women were more diverse and more populated. But this all came to pass, when my ego and my backwards lifestyle got in the way, and ruined everything. It started at a huge party, and one of the Frat houses, after we won a local basketball tournament. I went along as normal. It was my second year in, and I already was very popular with the girls on campus, as well as fellow teammates. I found myself, basking in the glory of what I deemed as “the Life”. I truly had no worry in the world; there was nothing that could take me down from this high. I could have anything that I wanted, my grades were good enough to stay eligible, and I was having fun every single day on campus. Again, I can remember not having a single worry in the world. But this night ended up different than the other nights. I met this girl…I cannot even remember her name, that was from the local town near the college. She caught my attention at the party, and kept my attention the whole night. The girl was very attractive, and easy to get along with. One thing I liked was her enthusiasm to do us favors. Anything, from refilling my cup, to making about 2 or 3 beer runs for the party. The night went as normal, a lot of fun and a new girl by my side. But when I woke up the next morning, I quickly realized that the girl was gone. I brushed it off like every other time, gathered my things and headed towards the dorms to sleep in a little more before my next class. I awoke from my nap to loud “banging” at my door. I opened the door and it was three Sheriffs from the local town, and they had four of my teammates. These Sheriffs were called by some Judge from the local town, apparently his daughter went missing the night before, and returned in the morning completely drunk. I thought at the time that this had nothing to do with us, so why are we involved. Come to find out, that judge’s daughter, was the girl of my dreams from the night before. Even so, I thought what was the big deal? She is an adult. Well, come to find out this young lady was only 17 years old, and a senior in High School. This news hit us hard, and so did the school. Due to the fact that no one could really remember who she was, or who brought her there, all of us were expelled from school and sent back to our home towns. This was a dreadful feeling. I felt a little ashamed, and mostly embarrassed.
To think, I was on top of the world, and now I am lower than dirt. I could barely hold my head up above my shoulders that last day on campus. For the first time in my life I felt weak, and unworthy of any praise. It even got worse when I saw a classmate of mine, Brooklyn. She was a girl from Albany, who never showed any sexual interest in me, but was always there to help me with school work. I and she used to talk about everything, but she did not party much. She was one of those that were really focused on school. Over all she was a very cool girl, but I could not even respond to her questions of where I was going, and what I was doing. I just shook my head, and continued on, jumped in my car, and began heading back home.
It was after this huge mistake, when I finally felt mortal. It took me to be expelled from school, to bring me back to Earth, at least so I thought. But as I rode home, many of my actions and behaviors ran through my mind, as I tried to figure out how I got to this point. This was a very tough process for me, I never had to evaluate myself like this ever before. But as soon as I touched down in my home town, it was not very long before I returned back to normal me. I continued to party, bend the rules, and most of all, I continued to treat women like disposable cameras. Use them for a weekend or a special event, throw them to the side, and get a new one. All these behaviors remained the same over the next few years. I took my charismatic personality and became a successful car sales man, in my home town. I made good money, drove a nice car, and got back together with some old friends from high school. Business as usual, is what we would say, when we would plan out our weekends. All these things seemed to fuel my life. that was until the doctor’s appointment, when I received the statement that my life had an expiration date, and the day I met Magdalene Rose.
I could still envision that day as I walked into the doctor’s office. I was suffering some type of sickness for about a month before this moment. I experienced rapid weight loss, and severe stomach pain. I usually drank the pain away, but at this point I had no choice, I had to see a doctor. I remember pulling up in the parking lot, and seeing a little girl standing against the building wall, with ear buds in, listening to what I assumed was an IPod of some sort. She was sitting there in a worn sun dress, an old pair of black Chuck Taylors, and playing with her fingers. Kind of as if, she was playing the “Itsy Bitsy Spider song”. But as I walked closer, I could tell that she was singing a totally different song, a song that remains to ring in my thoughts and dreams to this day…..In a soft-slow-haunting but sweet voice, I heard it:
“This little light of mine
I’m ganna Let it shine
Ohh this little light of mine
I’m ganna let it shine.”
For some very odd reason, I was completely captivated by this little girl. I found myself feeling refreshing comfort, from her song. It was unexplainable. I kept on to my appointment, as I walked by her to get to the office door. I thought to myself, this is not a pediatric office; she must be here with her parents.
After waiting a while for the doctor, we decided to run some tests, and blood work. About an hour goes by, and my doctor comes back to the room. I immediately knew something was wrong. The easy-going, jokester of a doctor was gone, and now came a somber and serious version of the same guy. I remember feeling very nervous for no apparent reason, but the vibe he was giving off seemed to suit these feelings. He pulled up his chair to mine, looked me dead in the eyes, and informed me that I had a form of liver cancer. This was a true test of my mortality. For the first time, I felt weak and not in control. As rabid butterflies filled my stomach, I desperately asked if I was going to die. Very bluntly he responded that I had about a 30 percent chance of making it the next six months, and suggested that I make some dramatic life changes in order to have a fighting chance. He left me in the office, as I sat there with my entire life flashing before my eyes again. I thought why is this happening to me? What did I do to deserve this? I partied along side of many other people, some were actually worse than me, and still; I am going to die? I can honestly say at this point of my life, I was lost.
I tell you, receiving this news, a death sentence if you will, Was actually a blessing in disguise. That day in the doctor’s office, was the first day of the rest of my life. From that point on my life and my mind began to shift into a new version of myself. With the help of dear Maggie, I was able to embrace this situation, and give death a run for its money.
Over the next few days, I dealt with this news all alone. I had not even gone to fill the prescription that the doctor gave me the day of the appointment. So this third day of grieving I decided, I better make my way to this follow up appointment. I felt like just giving up, saying forget this world, and just let go. It was way too difficult to try to fight something that I was almost guaranteed to lose. Nonetheless, something got me up that morning. And something gave me the strength to go to this appointment. So, I got dressed and made my way over to the doctor’s office. By my surprise, when I pulled into the parking lot, I saw that same little girl leaning up against the building wall. I thought, this cannot be the same girl, from the other day, how odd is this? But low and behold, when I began walking towards the door, I heard her singing a very familiar song:
“This little light of mine
I’m ganna let it shine
Ohh this little light of mine,
I’m ganna let it shine”
But this time, she glared at me walking through the parking lot, towards the office door. She looked at me, and turned and went into the office. I thought maybe, that she may have been scared being outside by herself, or something. At the time I did not put much thought into it, I had bigger issues at hand. As I walked up to the secretary to give her my name, I noticed that the little girl was sitting by herself in the waiting room. It was a small waiting room, so I had no choice but to sit across from her. I remember sitting there in somewhat of a deep depression. I found myself questioning why I was even at the appointment. It was a complete waste of time; I am going to die anyways. As these many thoughts were running through my mind, I heard the sweet tender voice of the ten year old for the first time. And it was in the form of a question:
“why do doctors’ offices bring so much sadness?”
I did not even respond, I thought she must be talking to herself, plus I was in no form to discuss my situation with this little girl, but then she spoke more direct.
“Hello sir, I am Magdalene Rose.”
“Hi, I am Jaxon”, I replied.
“Why are you so down sir?” she gently asked.
I just wiped my eyes with my hands, and ignored her request for information, but she would not let me go.
“You know sir, someone has a purpose for you, for you to prosper and do great things with hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11).
To be honest, when she said this I thought it was very corny. I thought, this little girl went to too many Sunday school classes. So I just kept on to my appointment.
As I left the appointment, I could not help but to dwell on the words that this little girl spoke. I kept thinking thoughts of prosperity and a future and all the things I wanted to accomplish. This was odd for me, because I always just based my life on “right now”, never down the road. But with this news from the doctor, and the conversation with Magdalene, I could not help to think of the life I could have, if I was not going to die. As these thoughts racked my brain, I found myself in front of the pharmacy, as if this was the time in my life where I had to make a choice. Am I going to fight this thing, or will I just let it ride. I sat in my car for about a half an hour debating this choice. Then I decided. I took a deep breath, picked up the prescription and headed for the door.
Old Friend-New Answers
My friends, I tell you that piece of advice that I received from Magdalene Rose, was not limited to one occasion. It was almost like she guided directly towards the answers I needed. Through her willingness to share her thoughts freely, I was able to become acquainted with an old friend, I was able to receive, not the answers I wanted, but the answers I needed. Maggie pointed something out to me that I never thought of before. She pointed out something that I never truly experienced, and never truly desired. Only at this point did I realize what my life was missing, and why these things were happening the way that they were. Let this be a lesson for the rest of us, that without love, nothing will prosper. I mean nothing at all.
I could feel tears begin to fill my eyes as I explained to the crowd the desperate importance of love. Just the mere mention of it, brings me back to what happened when I walked into that pharmacy. I walked up to the counter and handed my prescription, there must have been an issue with the dosage, because the clerk requested that the Pharmacist come and speak with me about it. When this female pharmacist came from behind her workstation, and began walking towards me, I was completely blown away. I began sweating for some reason, and butterflies filled my stomach. Then she came up, with an expression on her face as if she was suffering from the same physical symptoms.
“Jaxon?” she questioned. “Is that you?”
I could not believe it. It was Brooklyn, a friend from college, and she was as beautiful as she looked 6 or so years ago when I'd seen her last. This completely shocked me, and for that very moment I had lost all knowledge of why I was even there in the first place. Thoughts of death and this cancer were completely whipped out of my mind. I soon found out that she graduated from our college and became a pharmacist. She was not married and did not have any children, and moved to my home town, for employment purposes. But none of this mattered to be honest, I was just very happy to see her.
From that day forward, I made it a point to go to the pharmacy as many times as I could. I found myself lying to the doctor about the effects of the medication, so he can call me in a new prescription and I could go back to the pharmacy that day. Now that I think back, she must have thought I was a basket case, with all these new medications, but I did not care, when I spent those little moments with her it was as if nothing else could harm me. I can still feel the euphoria I felt after, she agreed to go out on a date with me, after about the twentieth visit to the pharmacy in only two weeks. The night we went out, was the first time in forever that I enjoyed time with a women, without sex, beer, or drugs being a part of the equation. To be honest it felt extremely refreshing.
After about six months of seeing each other at least once a week, I noticed that I did not even take any of the prescriptions that I piled up on over the past few months, and felt genuinely good. No aches, no pains, and no nausea. I called a doctor and made an appointment to explain what was going on, and made my way to the appointment, and without fail Magdalene was sitting in the waiting room. I always kind of joked that she was waiting there for me, but it must have just been a coincidence. As she sat in the chair of the waiting room coloring in the office coloring book, while listing to her headphones and humming her song, I tapped her on her shoulder, and told her the good news. I explained to her that it could not be explained, and things could not be any better. When I said this to her, she just turned and looked at me with a smile, then as the smile went away she looked at me with that familiar gaze, as if she was looking though me, and said,
“you know my papa always says, That if a Man finds a wife, that is very good, and then he will receive favor.” (Proverbs 18:22).
I thought to myself; “wife, what wife?” The only thing I could relate this to is Brooklyn, but I never told her about us reuniting. There is no way, I thought, so I just smiled back and went into my appointment.
Now is the Time
Throughout life, and through the times that I spent with Magdalene, I realized how important aspects such as Marriage are. You see, Marriage completes a man. All the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of a man are completely wiped away once he finds that perfect someone.
That certain someone can determine if your life is worth living for. At least this is what I learned. I decided from those days, spent with Maggie, that my life was not over but just beginning, and it wasn’t that my dreams and goals were dead, but that now I have new goals and dreams, that will provide hope and future.
I could not sleep that entire night; I could not help to think that what Maggie meant was that I get married to Brooklyn. I tossed and turned all night. The generation that I was brought up in taught me that marriage was bad. They all end badly, and you can be just as happy with staying single, and dating someone. But this thing, just kept tugging at me, I just could not seem to shake it. So I waited for a time that I thought was not too early to call, and I called Brooklyn at about 7am that next morning, to make plans for that weekend. She found it strange that I was calling her so early in the morning about something that was going to take place a couple days from now, nonetheless, she still agreed and the date was set.
Over the next couple days, this question of marriage really interfered with the rest of my life. I could not eat and I could barely sleep. I found myself observing the people around a lot more. From watching the boys on the corner flirting with every girl that walked by, some successful and some unsuccessful, and I remember when I used to do that. Then I found myself in a grocery store or the video store, and observing couples holding hands as they decide what they will make together for dinner, or what movie to watch on date night. I envied those people. Just watching them, I could feel the happiness and love radiating off of them, and I wanted that. It was something that I had been missing my whole life, that absolute completeness and feelings of extreme comfort in one another. So after a couple days of these observations I made my choice, and got ready for that date. We pulled up to the restaurant, and my heart was beating out of my chest. I did not speak a word the entire ride, afterwards she mentioned that she thought I was going to break it off, little did she know what I had in store. This night it just seemed that she looked more beautiful than ever, and as we waited in the waiting lobby for our table, I could not hold it in any longer, and blurted it out. I bent down on one knee, looked deep into her eyes, wiped my tears and she tried to hold back hers, and asked:
“Brooklyn, will you marry me?”
And she said yes. I do not even think we ate one bite of our food that evening, just spent the whole time kissing, hugging, and crying. This was the beginning, I could feel it. Things were going to become amazing. It only took us a month to put together a wedding, and we did it. Throughout the entire ceremony, I was on cloud nine. I can recall a couple of friends and family members saying on more than one occasion, while they were having a conversation with me, I would look away with a gaze; Either looking at my new bride, or just off in mid air. I suppose those were the times where I thought of Maggie. All together, this moment was the marker that announced my shift change. My life was complete, and finally on the right path.
The day I married my wife Brooklyn, was the happiest day of my life. Looking back at all the things that I had to go through, I am the luckiest man in the world, to have her in my life. In fact she has been an angel that was sent from above. Over the past few months, with meeting Maggie and experiencing love, I have had the feelings of a great burden lifted off of me. I recently went to the doctors to check the progress of my cancer, and the doctor found no traces of the cancer in my body.
As the crowd begins to give me a standing ovation for this tremendous news, tears and brief sadness came over me. Not because of the cancer, but because Maggie was not here to see this miracle. I swallowed my tears, and continued on, for the sake of Maggie, my life, and Love.
I have no doubt that this miracle was due to the experiences that I have had over the past 6 months or so, as well as the love that I finally understood. If it was not for Magdalene Rose, guiding me in the right direction, I would have never understood that Love proves miracles and God is Love. I love you Maggie, and I will miss you more than anything in the world.
- Share this story on
- 3
COMMENTS (0)