My Friend Linda Part 1

Today I want to tell you about my good friend Linda McMillan. Linda died of cancer 5 years ago, seems so much longer.

Linda was one of those people, you know, the kind that became instant friends with everyone. Everyone she knew thought of her as their best friend. At her memorial service, everyone who got up to speak, said. "Linda was my bestfiend."

From the very first day Linda stepped foot in the head quarters of Wycliffe Bible Translators in Huntington Beach California, she was our bestfriend. In fact she and Connie were pretty much inseparable.

Linda had been a wild child, smoking, drinking, partying. She married another wild child, it didn't last. Linda was searching for something, she tried different religions, but one day a kid on a bus yelled out to her, "Jesus loves you!" She never forgot that, she kept thinking about it and one day a friend led her to the Lord. He'd been a real wild child, a heavy drug user, but one day he showed up, a totally changed man. She had to know why, so he told her and her life was totally changed too. Boy was it ever.

Linda was a waking testimony, sharing her faith with everyone she met. I'm sure when she got to heaven, many people greeted her with whom she had shared , other people who's lives were forever changed. There was just something about Linda, people felt safe with her and they told her their life stories, in check out lines, at gas stations, information booth. It was amazing. When we went shopping and had to wait for her (and it took forever), she'd come running and say, "Sorry I took so long, but that poor girl. She told me....." Her life story with all her troubles and woes. People just saw something in her, no doubt it was Jesus. Linda had a way of befriending the "forgotten" people. The ones most people wouldn't give the time of day. She always took time for them, went out of ther way for them. Made them feel loved and important.

One of those friends was an older lady named Phyllis. I don't think she had any friends, except Linda, and was rather difficult to work with. Phyllis became very ill and die. Linda arranged her memorial service and asked our pastor to led it. He did such a wonderful job and it was a very nice service. Just one of the many loving things Linda did for people.

Linda was very funny too. You can be a good Christian and be funny. Who knew?! When we met Linda she was working temporarily at the office waiting for her visa. She was going to Colombia as a missionary. She was only in the office for 9 months but she made a huge impact. She started a group called the WUGGs. Wycliffe Unattached Guys and Gals. We had a ton of young singles working at the office. She organized activities for us every weekend. (I'm sure she is on the Social Committee in Heaven).

When she finally got her visa for Colombia, instead of celebrating that she was finally going to the mission field, we went into mourning. She was leaving us and we were going to miss her terribly. Linda ministered in Colombia for over 20yrs, and of course became bestfriends with everyone there too.

 Linda was a good letter writer (this was way before cell phones, skype and even e-mail, though we did start using e-mail once we got it.) and kept in close touch with Connie and I and others I'm sure. She came home on furlough every 3-4 years and we'd just take up were we left off, like we'd never been apart.

When our father died, Linda told us that she'd be in Calif  and could come to the service in Hinkley. She come alright. People at the service were coming up to Connie & I and saying, "Your friend Linda is so wonderful," and on and on about her. Connie and I are going, "Hey, we are the ones who's father died, remember us?" 

She stayed with us at our folks home the rest of our stay in Hinkley. We rented the movie "Erin Brockovich" while she was there. She was so thrilled to watch a movie about Hinkley (where I grew up) in Hinkley. (If you've never heard of the movie you can google it).

Wycliffe moved from Hungtoning Beach to Orlando in 1999 and about a years later Wycliffe closed the Colombia Branch. Linda moved to Orlando and went to work at the HQ as an accountant. The finance dept didn't know what hit them.


When she first moved to Orlando, she stayed with Connie and I at our apt until she could find a place of her own. We rode to work together everyday and every evening when we got in the car to go home, she'd say, "Ok, this is what we are going to do tonight..." One week she went to Dallas for meetings and she called. "What are you doing," she asked. "Nothing," I said. "I'm just sitting on the couch staring into space. You're not here to tell me what to do." 

Linda slept on a blow up mattress in the livingroom. When she got her own place she didn't have any furniture yet so she took the blow up mattress and asked me to help her get it in the car. She tried every which way to get that thing in the car, but it was not going to fit. I hope the neighbors were watching because it was quite a show. She finally said, "Well I guess I'm just not going to be able to take it." I said, "Why don't you let the air out?" She just looked at me and then cracked up. She hadn't even thought of it. We laughed over that for years.

It seemed we were always making something for a finance party. It was often she and I doing the whole thing. For one party she wanted to make my mom's cinnimon rolls. They were very easy, but we had to make, like 100. We got all the stuff and went to my place to begin our baking. During the process, Linda picked up the pan full of the cinnimon mixture and almost dropped it. She might as well have because she juggled the thing all over the kitchen for at least 3mins, cinnimon was flying everywhere. I was frozen in horror yet facinated by her juggling skills. Our kitchen was covered in cinnimon, but the up side was, it smelled so good for months. Of course we laughed our heads off afterward. I'll never forget the look on her face as she juggled that pan of cinnimon.

Once we had to make a million little egg salad sandwiches. Linda made them one egg at a time. She literally cut up and mixed one egg at a time. I'm just staring at her. Who does that? She said it tasted better that way.

When our parents died, we sold their home in Hinkley and  Connie and I were able to buy a house. Linda was able to rent a room in a house just 2 doors down. (we all agreed that her living with us wouldn't be a good idea, but as you can imagine, she lived mostly at our place anyway.) One evening when she was over we discovered 3 little frogs had gotten in the house. They got in all the time and Connie was scared to death of them. They were less then an inch long, yes, very terrifying. Anyway I managed to catch 2 of them in a box but one hopped into the kitchen under the dishwasher. I said to Linda, "Do you think if we put a bag down it would hop into it?"  "Yeah, thats a good idea."  So we get a grocery bag and Linda get down on the floor and is trying to coxe the tiny frog into the bag. She talked sweet baby talk to it, "Come on baby, get in the bag,"  She put the bag right up to the frog and scared it. It hopped right on her face. We almost killed each other trying to get away. We were both screaming and running around the kitchen like crazy people. I think the frog died of a heart attack.

Ah, Linda, we laughed so much with her. Life with  was never dull. By the time she moved to Orlando Connie and I were hanging with "The Gang". It didn't take her long to fit in, though there were a few clashes with other strong personalities, but with a few adjustments, she once again became everyones bestfriend and our social director.

Stay tuned for Part II.