Standing at the Threshold of Heaven...Part 6...The Markers Get Clearer

After I left the theater company I tried other kinds of work.  Work that would help people.  I worked for a minority unemployment agency and I enjoyed it.  Then my roommate and good friend from college talked about doing that childrens play we toured in college.

I found a producer and we held auditions and mounted the show.  Also during the summers, I worked with the same producer to do theater workshops for minority kids.  I taught them how to build a show from their imaginations and they performed original pieces.  I loved doing this.  Somehow I realized that working with kids and theater would be my next step.Several of those kids would follow me through the programs I built and they performed in many show for me.  AND two of them are dear friends to this day. Marker

My professional kids show ran for years and was nominated for Chicago's high honors, The Jospeh Jefferson Awards.  We won in 1976 for the Best Childrens Production in Chicago.

Personally, there were men I became involved with but no one long term.  And, in fact, an old boyfriend from the Philadelphia  came to visit and asked me to marry him.  I was not interested, I was still in pain.  I loved Ed, the photographer from Philly, but only truly as a friend.  But he and I too had a psychic connection.  He had attended some of our show on the road and kept in contact with me over the years. But I remember once in 1970 he were walking down the street and I was talking to him in my head.  HE ANSWERED ME.  I stopped walking and he asked what was wrong.  I said, "I never spoke that question to you...I thought it and you answered it."  He argued with me and told me I spoke it...I repeated that I had NOT said it out loud.  And once he hypnotized me just for fun no training, just knew how to do it.

Years later while I was with the theater group he described a scene in the show he was about to see.  I said "You have not seen that show yet!"  Again he insisted he had. This man had abilities but would not admit to it.  So one day in about 1977 I was walking to my Chicago apartment and I heard a man's voice.  It sounded like it was coming from a window of an upper apartment.  There was no one.  Then I heard it again..."Alice" .  What was going on?  I walked into the apartment and phone rang.  It was Ed. I had not heard from him a year.  He was calling to tell me he had fallen in love and was getting married. He had called alright! Marker    I would never hear from him, in any form, again.

After the theater group Dean and I did not speak for some time.  I don't remmeber what happened but we then became very good friends. He was my best friend.  Talked on the phone for hours, went to dinner all the time.  We loved to try ethnic places, a new one each time.  We did everything together. Dean was single and gay so there was no possibility of getting involved.  Our friendship was so good for both of us.  We grew up in similar ways in the country in Illinois. He was an actor but his mission and passion was Art.  So years to come were filled with creating programs for kids and community centers and being an Artist in Residence for the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois and hanging out with my best friend, Dean.

I was busy and happy.I   found out I loved teaching. Marker Mr. Hagerty!  I did some acting after that but the flame on performing had gone out. In those 10 years I learned and taught more than most people do in a lifetime. I had found a new passion. Marker.  I was developing theater programs to help others express their feelings and lives in original work. It was joyous work.

In 1978, I was put in charge of a summer theater program at Navy Pier.  Then it was full of open space so the city allows the place to do theater, dance, and performing arts. The biggest Marker was about to happen.  We were holding auditions for the program. I had staff that was holding the audition but I was the director and was running the entire thing. I saw an dark skinned young fellow standing watching auditions through a window in the door.  Now everyone was told they could not watch and to stay behind the outer door. I walked over and told him he could not watch.  He turned and looked at me and said,"Who are You?"  I instantly found myself furious and at the same time in love with him.  "What?" I thought in my head.

 I told him I was the director of the entire program.  "Well, I am suppose to be here. I signed up."  I said, "Fine but your are to stand outside that door." I pointed away from where we were standing. He continued "Why can't I watch?"  Oh, I was so angry, he was defying me. And in the same moment I found myself totally taken by him.  I told him it was the rule and he then walked out the other door.  Wow, what just happened here!

So they held the auditions and later they sat picking who would be in the program, I sat asking questions and directing the meeting.  The staff were all women that day.  Then the subject of "Edwin" came up.  They told me when he auditioned in English he was not very good but one of the women knew Spanish and sensed that he would do well speaking his first language.  It worked they said he was fabulous and should be selected. Then the conversation turned into a coffee clutch, "That young man is Hot"   "Yeah, I will take him in my class" another said and then all of them started to argue over who would put the moves on him first.  Again, I was in charge but in my head the thought was. "Oh, no ladies, I have met him and he already is mine"  Instead, I told him to get back on track and stop the trash talk, 

I was to call all the people to tell them yay or nay.  I decided to call all of them from home.  So when it came to his name I found myself shaking. Hm? Marker...BIG HUGE MARKER.  I then hear a voice, not in my head, but with my ears say...THIS IS THE MAN YOU WILL MARRY.   the phone was already ringing and Edwin answered. I was so surprised and stunned I almost hung up.  Like the good boss I was, I got my composure and told him he had made the program.  I hung up and sat in the chair in the twilight motionless for about 20 minutes.  Edwin ushered in the beginning of my true gift, hearing from the other side. We married 4 years later.

Web site:  http://freewebs.com/messagesofhope/