Writing to Remember

In my lovely list of classes, I am enrolled in SPCM 1100, also known as Introduction to Public Speaking. Now those of you that know me fairly well have probably ascertained that I like to talk. I like to talk about anything. But even more than I like to talk, I love to listen. I love to hear people's stories, experiences, and just hilarious events that have happened in their lives. I like to watch them relive a story when they tell it, especially when it's either something they are passionate about or have a strong memory of, the ones with those components are the best stories. Back to the point, in my speech class we are given various types of speeches that we have to deliver. For example, my forensic speech, where I had to research and come up with a formal accusation of wrong doing, was on the topic of No Child Left Behind. (Got an A on it... woop woop!) 


But this current topic is going to be the hardest speech I will have to write up to this point in my life. It is a ceremonial speech, more specifically, a eulogy. A huge part of my testimony is sharing about the people in my life that have impacted my life and/or have passed away. But never have I been asked to tell the story of their lives. I thought about what topic to pick and I knew that there really was only one that I could do. I'm giving Marshall Coile's Eulogy. Now for those of you who didn't know Marshall, he was an amazing man. He always made the people around him smile and laugh, he put others before himself, and he embodied a man after God's own heart. This is why writing this speech is going to be so tricky. I do not want, in any way, to cheapen or understate how great of a man Marshall was. I want to relate just how much of an impact he made on my life and the lives of people around him. 


I met Marshall and his wife Karen on a rafting trip years ago and they were a lot of fun. They helped out with the youth group and always were hanging around and just being great role models and mentors for FBC youth. We always knew that if we were having a rough day we could talk to Marshall or Karen and they would cheer us up. He always told me that God's plan is the one to follow, even if I was going off to college that didn't mean I could just abandon the spiritual base and the faith I got from home, in fact he challenged me to let my faith and dependence on God grown whenever I came up to Athens. Now if there is one thing Marshall loved, it was UGA football. A die-hard DAWG fan thru and thru. He always joked with me that in order to love UGA, I was going to have to become a Bulldog and boy was he right about that. Whenever I moved up here to Athens... I caught the bug. Now you should just imagine Marshall's surprise (and huge smile) whenever I told him that I had been converted, that is something I will never forget.


 But, I will also never forget when I found out he was diagnosed with cancer. I thought for sure he could beat it, I believed to the very core of my being that he was going to come out alright and we would laugh about it in a few years. I started writing PFM (Pray For Marshall) everywhere and prayed and pleaded with God to help Marshall beat his cancer. And yet to my utter dismay that wasn't God's plan. Whenever he was in the hospital for one of the last times he said that his heart was in a place much bigger than this Earth and he was okay. Nor will I forget the call that I got, on a cold and bright Monday morning at 7:34 am as I was heading to my Athletic Training Lab, when I was told that Marshall had passed away. 


He was gone. The man that had pushed me to be a Georgia Bulldog, inspired me to be a nurse, and had encouraged me to continue to seek God no matter where I was in the world was gone. 


And in writing this eulogy I am reliving every single emotion that I felt and continue to feel in that moment. But even though I sometimes cry as I write, I smile because I remember the times that we laughed and joked. (For example, the "VBS Security" guards) And that is where Marshall lives on. In those tears and in those memories. When I first began writing this speech I could hardly make it through one practice run but now as I remember a quote from my mom I know that I really can make it thru this:


"Sorrow is like the ocean. Sometimes the tide comes in and you are tossed about, your feet can't touch the bottom, and you feel like you're going to drown. But just as the tide goes in, the tide does go out. You are able to stand up again, and you know that you will survive."


I will survive. I am having emotions come up again that are painful and that are going to be rough to deal with, but like my mom says, "I will survive." My tide is high right now and I am trying to stay afloat. And sometimes the fact of knowing how big he smiles whenever I scream in excitement for Georgia is enough to comfort me that even if I fail this speech, his memories and impact on my life will never fade and will never die. So in honor of my speech, but more importantly, in memory of Marshall I will always and forever say...


"GO DAWGS!"


Live Today.