I had recently moved to a house on Lucasville Road, it was a small Black community with a Baptist church down the road from me. One spring day as I sat in my livingroom reading my giant white bible a knock came to my door, a middle aged black lady said she came to welcome me to the community. Her name was Enid Parsons, she said she had come to invite me to church. I was delighted. I told her I was reading the bible, she smiled, she said she had been guided to come and see me that day. I thought it was a little hokey but she was gentle, had a kind face and I knew she genuinely believed what she was saying. I agreed to attend Church with her the next Sunday.
We were about to leave Nova Scotia and move back to Ontario, but I decided I would attend church with her, even if only for a few Sundays. My first Sunday I felt conspicuous I was the only white face in a group of about fifty people, but the music was wonderful and the people were kind. I told Enid I was moving and could only attend one more Sunday she said she would pray for me that I would come to “know the Lord” I wasn’t really too sure what she meant by that but I took her at her word.
I thought of Enid a lot the following months. They were busy months I had two small children and was five months pregnant with my third. I was moving from Nova Scotia to Ontario. My husband would be trying to start a business and we would be getting settled in a new area. We chose Saint Catharines because it was called the “garden city” I had family in Hamilton about an hours drive away, but Saint Catharines was a little smaller and seemed a good place to raise a family. I didn’t spend a lot of time reading my bible that summer, but occasionally I would think of Enid and wonder if she was still praying for me. My third child was born in October. My husbands business wasn’t taking off and we were having financial issues. The stress was beginning to accumulate, until finally one day I called a help line.
The person who answered said to me “do you want a divorce?” I was quite shocked, I wasn’t thinking of divorce, I just knew I wasn’t happy, my husband wasn’t happy, I had nobody to talk to, felt overwhelmed and simply wanted someone to listen.
The help line operator suggested I attend a United Church, he said it came well recommended and I thought, okay why not, perhaps it will even help, little did I know the changes that were about to come in to my life.