PART 1

God Created A Monster: Halloween 2002

Prequil: My Best Friend….Linda Grace….. for years we dealt with workaholic husbands. My husband milked cows for 43 years, caring for his family and building a Century Farm. Gracie’s husband worked late hours at Honda.

It’s a necessity of life for all women to have friends they can rely upon. Women need other women. The best way to stop feeling sorry for yourself, is to get a friend and become creative….. AND SO WE DID!

Purple and pink wings, green antennae, six legs, and a tiny red body with black spots: the monster is often seen in the Hilliard/Dublin area on Friday nights, often doing random acts of kindness, while leaving its subjects breathless.

On several occasions, the mouths of the bystanders drop open in disbelief, as the monster crawls by. Their eyes are a display of shock and awe.

Coming from its belly can be heard giggles, songs, peals of uproarious laughter, and sometimes tears.

There are two parts to this creature. One side is named Extravagant Grace. She is His precious Ladybug. The other side of the creature is anointed with the name Fearless Faith. She is a former cocoon tenant, who has learned to soar above many perils in her life.

Both love to minister to women, and touch lives as they flit from person to person. When God designed them, he split their souls in two, giving a piece of each, to the other.

Last Sunday was an unusual day, due to the fact that the monster got loose in Dublin. Needless to say, Jo Ann Fabrics would never be the same.

Gracie was trying to fight a lifetime of guilt, placed upon her by her 85 year old mother. Gramma usually leaves about 5 messages a day on her answering machine. She suffers from dementia and lives in Willowbrooke Retirement Center in Delaware, Ohio. Oh by the way, I forgot to mention: Gracie is the Activities Director at Willowbrooke! Therefore, she sees mom on a daily basis.

Needless to say, we needed to play. Lunch at Panera and a Girlfriend Day would become the order of the day.

After solving the day’s issues over our café mochas, we headed for Jo Ann fabrics. It was Halloween and there were lots of things to play with.

Let me tell you friends, we had a blast:
*trying on masks, hats and wigs
*pushing the buttons on each animated toy
*laughing until we cried the monster began to roar ferociously!

As I rounded the corner, I could hear peals of laughter. ”Oh Girlfriend, You are the best!” “Come see what I’ve found!”

There they were displayed, in all of their glory: a ladybug costume for Gracie, and a butterfly costume for me. Do you find it hard to believe that we purchased them immediately? I think not. We were ecstatic, to say the least!

On the way to the car, Gracie reiterated the fact, that between all of the fun and playtime, she was still fighting the guilt. I decided that enough was enough and I planned my strategy. She needed to laugh her guilt away.

As she excused herself to return the cart to the sidewalk, I bent down and quickly and poured myself into my costume-wings, antennae, and all.

Coming near the car, she was in total shock! I jumped up running around two or three cars singing; “Don’t know what it is that makes me love you so.” “I only know I’m never gonna let you go.” “You ’ve started something, can’t you see?” “That ever since we’ve met you’ve had a hold on me.” “It’s His fault, it is true.” “I ONLY WANNA BE WITH YOU!”

Not to my dismay, by any means, there were two girls standing near watching us.

As Gracie dissolved against the car with tears of laughter, the girls chimed in on the hilarity of the moment. “I wish I had a video camera!” One of the girls exclaimed, as she wiped tears of laughter from her eyes. The other girl quipped in with, ”The girls at work are never gonna believe this one!”

The two of us turned together, and in sync commented,”Thummmtimes, we are verweee, verwee scareeeeee!” “Yes, when God brought us together, He created a Monster!

Post Script: Laugh, play, giggle, and create with Girlfriends! You’ll often save your sanity!

Sue Cutler
Fearless Faith