Way to seize the future, Linda and Paul!
By Chris Johnson
Director of Communications
While I was en route to Perry, Ga., yesterday, getting ready to dive into some chocolate birthday cake with chocolate frosting (can you tell I like chocolate?), Fuller Center co-founder Linda Fuller was at the Sumter County Courthouse tying the knot with Paul Degelmann. So sweet of them to pick my birthday as a marriage date!
I doubt Linda remembers it (because she’s only met about 17 million people more well-known than I am), but I met her and Millard Fuller back in the 1990s when I was just a lowly sports writer here in Americus. I was struck by how friendly they were to me. They were famous and had helped millions of people. I was infamous (or not famous, rather) and my biggest accomplishment to that point was writing a story without a typo.
There was naturally much mourning after Millard Fuller’s unexpected death in 2009. And no one was more heartbroken than Linda. And at that same time, Paul was dealing with similar circumstances. He would lose his long-time wife to cancer a few months later. They’d been married to their spouses almost the exact same amount of time.
Perhaps those similarities brought them together. Maybe it was just divine intervention. Whatever it was, they are a delightful couple, and they are happy. And if anyone has earned the right to be happy, it’s Linda. She’s a woman whose passion for serving others is second to none.
The legacy of Millard and Linda’s union lives on and thrives. I witness that every day. I know Paul and Linda treasure their respective pasts while seizing the future. I can’t say enough how much I admire their gusto. Life is meant to be lived, and there’s no better way to live it than to love. Earnestly. Wholeheartedly. Unapologetically.
I believe there is no gift more divine than love. That Paul and Linda have twice been chosen to receive that gift says an awful lot.
We should all be so lucky.
3 Comments
Amen! Well said, Chris! I think Linda and Paul will be just like an LP (Linda & Paul equals LP anyway, right?) … a long-playing record! May they make sweet music together for the rest of their lives. You are right … love is a divine gift, and I am so happy they are both twice blessed. It couldn’t have happened to nicer people. I have met Paul, and he is so down-to-earth and likeable. Although he and Linda did not know one another, they even live in the same neighborhood. It’s amazing that Paul had no previous involvement with Habitat or The Fuller Center, but I know he will now … Just as we count our blessings for Linda, and counted our blessings for Millard, now we can certainly count our blessings for Paul Degelmann and the happiness and joy he brings to Linda. O’yee!
What a beautiful tribute. Nicely done, Chris!
When my brother Paul, first called to tell me he had gotten married I was surprised, he asked me to guess what her name was, another big surprise, the same as mine! I am very happy for both of them because they found love again! Most peolple are lucky to find it once! I look forward to attending their church wedding.
Linda