To Inspire:

Our team is grieving the death of Jan Winkleman, a long time client and dear friend of Mark’s, who died at age 60, recently after suffering a stroke.  Cherishing her memory are her husband, Larry, her adult children (Ryan, Tyler, and Allie) and their spouses and her many many friends.

Jan was special in so many ways.  At her memorial service last week, her daughter Allie recalled the time that her parents gave her a Barbie doll when she was six years old.  She decided to cut the doll’s hair and liked the look so much that she cut her own hair to match it.  You know how that went – she kept cutting and cutting, never quite getting it the way she wanted – until she had shorn her bangs down to nothing.   Running to her mother in tears, she shared her angst that she had ruined her own hair trying to match the cut she had given Barbie.  Jan hugged her, went and got some scissors, sat down beside Allie, and cut her own hair to match her daughter’s.  Love.

Jan loved so well – the Lord; her family and friends; and strangers she had just met.  She gave love from a heart that was full of love.  As we mourn her passing from this life, we celebrate her new resurrection life.  And we are inspired by her to grow our own hearts to love more deeply.  As we’ve said before and as we all know deep in our hearts, love is the only thing worth truly living for – and the only thing that lives on after we’re gone, in the lives of those we have deeply loved.  Want to leave a real inheritance to others?  Leave a treasure chest of love.

Recommit to being a person of love – your life will be far the richer for it – and others’ lives will too.