Marilyn Davies

I was born on May 26, 1937, in Los Angeles, California. I remember at the age of five my grandfather (who was actually my dad's uncle) and my dad, Tom, building our new little home (about 900 sq ft) in Inglewood, CA. I grew up in that little house and loved it there. When in third grade, I was taking ballet, piano and violin lessons. My mother, Frieda, was a wise woman and soon saw that I would not be able to master all three, so she came to me and after discussion we decided that I would continue on with piano lessons only. I took lessons for 11 years, starting at age 7 and ending at age 18. Classical and light classical music were what I was taught. Two highlights of that period of my life were playing in recitals in two-piano concerts. When in high school, I played in a city-wide recital. I, to this day, love Clair de Lune by Debussy (solo) and Malaguena (pronounced Malagaynia) (two-piano). I graduated from high school in 1954.
When I was a young girl, there was no TV, computer, or fast food places. I was about 14 when we got our first TV. Polio was rampant in those days, and I remember sitting there thinking how I just didn't deserve such a wonderful thing in my home and that I surely, because of this, was going to get polio. Didn't happen. I was raised in the Independence, MO, based Reorganized Latter Day Saint church. After graduation, I then attended Los Angeles City College, majoring in dental assisting. I had a best friend named Betty in those days. During the summer between school years, she and I went up to Northern California to a young adult retreat north of Buellton, CA. That is where I meet my first husband, Frank Edward Hanna, Jr. He lived 26 miles away from where I lived. In those days there were no freeways. We met in August 1955 and married in May 1956. He was a jr. high teacher in those days in the famous East L.A. He got the mumps two weeks prior to our wedding and was just able to get up and about in time for the wedding. We got married in a beautiful little church in Los Angeles, which was mid-way between his and my home.
By the way, I did do dental assisting for about a year total before marriage.
After marriage, we lived in Temple City, California, in the San Gabriel Valley and in West Covina. It took us a while, but in 1962 we had our one and only natural-born child, Craig Robert Hanna. He is now part owner (four partners) of the fastest growing small business in the "imagineering" area of entertaining. One of the things his company developed and built was a ski mountain with ice caves inside, in DuBhai, United Emerates. Frank and I also adopted a 6-year old girl when Craig was 8. I have two grand-daughters by her. Craig had four children; Justin, Tyler, Mallorie, Courtney, and Bryce. Bryce is in all honors classes and is planning to become an engineer at MIT. Justin lives in San Francisco. Mallorie is attending university in AZ. I just found out two days ago that Vinnie and I are great-grandparents of a 3-1/2 month old little girl. I don't know how to spell her name, but it sounds like Mikhyla. When I was talking to Courtney on Sunday, I could hear the baby cooing. What a precious, sweet sound. What a joy!!
One day, Frank came up to me and told me that I should go to school to get a profession in case something should happen to him. I decided to go into nursing. I attended Pasadena City College and in 14 months graduated as an RN. Three years later we found out Frank had terminal cancer. He died in May 1981, two days after our 25th anniversary.
It was so painful to live in the house that my sweetheart had died in that I decided to move to Missouri, which is where Frank wanted to move to when retiring. Craig decided to stay in California and after my daughter and I left to move to Independence, Missouri, he got a job with a veterinarian. That's where he met his wife, Cindy. They married one year before Vinnie and I did.
I met Vincent Edwards Davies in Kansas City at a Denny's on 87th and I-435, in 1985. We were married four months later. Vinnie was a biker in those days. He still has his biker's vest with all the buttons on it. I'd say he changed a bit since those days. There was something about him that God showed me a short time after we met that told me he was to be my "diamond in the rough." I had decided that I didn't want another husband that would remind me of my first love, and God blessed me with another loving, thoughtful man that was so different from the first loving, thoughtful husband.
We've had some rough experiences since we married, including a biological mother that kidnapped her son (Greg) to travel across the country from Missouri to Florida because "God told her that her daughter in Florida was going to be killed by her in-laws." She made it to Mississippi where Greg called us to tell us what had happened. By the way, a voice told me to teach Greg that summer how to tell where he was when traveling on a highway or in town, etc, since he never paid attention to where he was going. God is the reason Greg knew how to tell where they were and then Greg had to knock his 300 pound mother down to get to the motel office and have them call the police for him. Greg was about 10 then. A couple weeks after that, I was at work in the evening and Vinnie was just getting home from the market and at the end of the block there was an ambulance and a police car. Vinnie just knew it was for Greg. He rushed up there and found it was Greg. A pick-up truck had run over the middle of Greg's body and they were taking him to the hospital a couple blocks away from where we lived. God used Greg to witness to a doctor in the E.R. there. They took x-rays of Greg and found, much to the surprise of everyone, that there was no broken bone in is body. He had tire treads across his middle and knees that remained there for several weeks, but that was all. The doctor's wife had been trying to teach him about God and Christ and he just didn't seem to get it. However, when he saw what had happened to Greg and heard that Greg had prayed to God to make his bones metal, the young doctor kept shaking his head as he walked away from them and said "there must be a God, because this had to be a miracle." This is the way God has used the not so good things that happened to us, by turning them into wonderful insights.
I want to say to my whole family, Vinnie, Craig, Greg, Lance, all the grandchildren, Sarah (the daughter-in-law that treated me like I was her mother) that I love each and every one of them, more than I could ever express.
Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for being you, each and every one of you. You have been so instrumental in my total conversion, at last, on March 29, 2010, with a loving sister at my side, when I prayed my prayer to Christ and He totally made me His. He has never left my side since and has been holding my hand and supporting me, like you see when reading "Footprints in the Sand." Thank you for taking me home, my dear Christ, as the time is just right.