It is now seven years since God’s gift to me my “HoneyBunch” unexpectantly finished her life’s journey and went to be with her Lord and Saviour. Firstly I want to explain the special name I gave to the love of my life – for her birthdays and wedding anniversaries, I wanted to give a special name that expressed my love to her and that she knew she was so special to me, hence the name HONEYBUNCH and was only used by me to express my love and devotion to her. The bible says in Psalm 37:23 “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord”. I am so glad that I made Jesus my Lord and Saviour just before I turned 15years of age and have lived with Him all my life, so I have experienced the hand of the Lord on our lives together for over 57 years. When I was about 17 years old, one Saturday afternoon while I was at my friend Barry’s house a car stopped at the back gate and a family came and one of the family was Barbara who was about 16 at the time. What I did not know at the time Barry was Barbara’s cousin, while I never spoke to her that day I was smitten and it was love at first sight. I did everything in my power to see her again – I even invited myself to family picnics and later on, I discovered where she was working. So I waited for her to be by herself so I joined her and rode home with her – she did not object so what started as a couple of nights changed to every night of the week. The first thing I discovered about her was how pleasant she was to be with and that never changed for our whole life together. There are so many highlights that I could talk about – My first kiss, getting engaged, our wedding day, the birth of our children etc. But it is her character and love for her Lord I want to talk about. Because when she was alive I just enjoyed the goodness of her life and it was only when she has gone to heaven I have had the time to pause and appreciate the strength of her Christian character.
Firstly, she was such a humble person – she had no high opinion of herself and considered other people better than herself despite being excellent in so many things. Because of her humility, people were very comfortable around her because she never promoted herself. Secondly, she was always content with her life as it was, there were times when we struggled financially and during those times she never complained and was content to live in the current situation. She never gossiped so people trusted her with their problems. However, the greatest part of her character was that she never held a grudge – every day was a new day and what happened yesterday was gone and never to rise again. That part of her life has impacted me so much and helped me to deal with many unfair situations. She had such a strong personal relationship with her Lord which she did not talk about, but I have lost count of the times she said that the Lord had told her something was going to happen and it always did. There is so much I could talk about but all I want to say is that I have been so blessed by the Lord in having a wife like my HoneyBunch. While there have been times of sadness I am still overwhelmed by the continuing goodness of the Lord – knowing that she is better off and the goodness of God in allowing me to experience 57 years knowing my HoneyBunch.
Beautiful, beautiful testimony Ian. We loved Barbara.
Everything you said about Barbara is so true. I really loved & appreciated her as my sister in the Lord. You were always welcome to visit & she always managed to pull out cakes & quite a spread, I don’t know how she did it. I found it very hard to believe when I heard of her passing, she was so alive & always doing something new, always seem to be on the go. I can’t wait until we meet again. xx