Eugene F Douglass
I sent this letter to Carol, that she received a few days before she went to be with the Lord. I hope you enjoy it. She was my beloved wife, since August 11, 1984.
Dated July 1, 2023
Dear Carol
I am writing to tell you that I moved to a 1 br apartment in Raleigh, to be near Robert and his family. I love the family God gave us, and you His instrument, provide us our sons, and now their families as well. I sold the Douglass home in Red Springs, as it was too big for just me, and our sons do not come back to visit me there, and it was too expensive to maintain. It was a wonderful gift from God, to own it for almost 17 years, and while I was working in Iraq, it was the first home to Robert, Aiyana, and their daughters, while I was there, and then living and working for 2 years in Brownsville Texas, teaching Chemistry at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley. I am so glad I got to teach and live in Brownsville, as it reminded me of our first family trip after Eugene Jr was born when we visited Brownsville and stayed on South Padre Island the week of Christmas, away from St Louis, and around the time you became pregnant with Robert. I have great memories of that trip, taking you to dinner, our hotel room on the beach, Eugene Jr liking the water, and us enjoying some warmer temperatures away from the cold of St Louis.
I now have a 1br apartment again, which brings back nice memories, of you coming over for me to prepare dinner for you, after we got engaged, and you blessed me, by saying how you liked my apartment and wanted to decorate it for me. And I commented how I appreciated that, and wanted you to decorate my life as well.
In the process of selling our house, I gave away and got rid of a lot of our Douglass stuff, and kept what I think is the most important parts of our lives together, pictures, your art that decorated the inside walls of the house, and other odds and ends, resulting in what is now in my apartment in Raleigh. Here are some pictures of how I laid it out and decorated it, particularly with your arts, many pictures of us, you, our sons, etc. I hope you like them. I miss the woman I married, you, and long/pray for one day, that our family will be reconciled in Christ, and me and our sons, their families, our grandchildren can appreciate your company again, and since I pray everyday for that, I leave it in God's hands, just as I did when I was praying for an "unknown" Carol in the 20 months before I ever got to Decatur to meet you. You read those prayer book entries for yourself, and for that I am thankful, for the blessing of being asked to pray for you since the fall of 1982, all through now, as I pray for our sons and their families as well. God has blessed us Carol, starting with both our leaps of faith in Him, to follow His guidance, and marry each other despite our fears, concerns, baggage we both brought with us.
Many people find odd, that I still adore you, well, I adore God, the price He paid for me on the cross, forgave my sins, and then used you to give us a family that would serve Him as well. I can't separate the Love I have for the Lord in giving me, a lonely angry nerd, new life, a family, the one woman I would be intimate with, who He would use to provide us with 2 sons, and through them extended family. I am not ashamed of that at all.
I hope you like the pictures, I kept attached the other pictures of our sons, I sent you a couple of years ago, I still love them too.
Here are three pictures of our sons and you at age 39, close to their age now, I see you in their faces and their smiles, and I am very thankful to God for all His wonderful gifts, particularly the family He gave us.
Love, (your husband until death do us part)
Gene