Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009

Retired bishop reflects on ministry, diagnosis

Finally.

That’s what the sign says at Bishop Marion Edwards’ back door. Given to him by a friend, the sign means that after 40 years of living in church-owned housing, the clergyman and his wife bought their own house. The minister promised his wife that she could pick it out, and renovate it to her liking.

“It’s nice to have our own home,” Linda Edwards said.

They moved to the Harris County backwaters after Marion Edwards’ retirement in 2004. It’s a picturesque spot, with an expansive view of the water from most rooms in the house; and the company of a faithful old dog named Bruno. Things were going along pretty swimmingly until one night in June.

“Linda and I were sitting here playing Scrabble and I had chills and wasn’t feeling right,” Edwards said in a recent interview. His blood pressure was elevated, and Linda got him to St. Francis. “That’s about all I remember, until later.”

He spent three weeks at St. Francis, and five weeks at Wesley Woods, affiliated with Emory University Hospital, in Atlanta. He had septic shock, then pneumonia, and nearly died. “Because of that, they began to notice things in my chest they couldn’t account for,” the bishop said.

Doctors found a malignancy in the lungs originating from another part of his body. Turns out it was the pancreas. He’s just started chemotherapy.

He found out about the cancer in August.

“I never smoked. That’s the first thing they asked me,” he said. Edwards was then transferred to the Winship Cancer Center in Atlanta; then the Edwards decided to coordinate treatment between Emory and the John B. Amos Cancer Center in Columbus. “I’ve been on quite a journey. ... I spent 40 years dealing with people going through crises and suddenly you wake up and you’re on the other side. I might would have been more sensitive and understanding. You begin to deal with your mortality in different ways. Earlier, there’s an illusion of immortality and being in control.

“I pray for healing but I can only do that within the will of God. I’ve told people, ‘I’m not afraid to die’ but of the process of dying, even though I know I’ve got a home in heaven.

“I do want him to be healed, if possible,” said Linda.

Meanwhile they find themselves surrounded by love.

“One of the great sources of healing already has been the worldwide support,” he said. “The Council of Bishops, which meets once a year — we’re all together on email. We’ve had an outpouring of love and support from them. I have friends from when I grew up in Springfield, near Savannah. I hear from them and am reminded how I’m being supported. That is a source of healing. “I’ve gained a lot of appreciation for the community of faith. ... Linda is a tower of strength and support, and she also suffers the pain,” Bishop Edwards said.

She is the former Linda Layfield of Columbus. The couple have three children and two grandchildren. The couple met in 1957 while students at Young Harris College in north Georgia. They married in 1962. Bishop Edwards served churches around the South Georgia Conference until his election as a bishop in 1996. (His last pulpit was St. Luke in Columbus, for eight years.)