Martha Word Haley

                Then                                                        Now   

Home:     55 Gregg Ct
              Springboro, OH 45066

Phone:    937-886-0237          

E-Mail:   mwordhaley1@earthlink.net

Bio:

Well, I finally did it.  I have been reluctant to write a bio because what I have to say is not funny or light, but it is what is on my heart.  I guess I should have contracted with Jill’s daughter or Barbara for a funny bio. 

I’ll start with the bio facts so those that don’t want to read my musings don’t have to.  I went to DLC for 1 year, until I was 18, then left home, dropped out of college and started working.  I worked for several years and went to night school on and off.  I married a good guy who had a similar C of C background in 1969 but we were divorced in 1972.  I started Peabody in 1970 and received a BA in 1972.  I worked for Metro Nashville as a productivity analyst for 2 years.  In 1974, I entered Vanderbilt and received an MBA in 1976.  I went back to Metro Nashville working in the Finance and Health departments until 1980.  In 1977, I married for the second time — big mistake.  Thankfully, it didn’t last long.  From 80 to 85 I was a consulting manager with Deloitte Touche.  From 85 to 89, I was business systems director for Rogers Group, Inc.  From 89 to 95, I was system and programming manager for The Miami Herald.  From 95 to 97, I was health systems manager at Vanderbilt Medical Center.  Since then, I’ve been an independent consultant mainly working with a beltway bandit corporation in Arlington, Virginia.  Thankfully I have been somewhat successful in my business life.

Well, all that changed in October 1997 when a friend from elementary school in Lebanon, Tennessee, called.  We hadn’t seen each other but twice since junior high (almost 40 years).  His wife of 35 years was divorcing him.  As he was on his way from west Texas to Lebanon, he heard a song that made him think of me.  While he was in Tennessee, we spent the better part of two days catching up.  He went back to Texas and we dated over the phone and he asked me to marry him over the phone.  John and I married on December 22, 1997, and have lived very happily ever since. 

Musings:  After high school, my aim was to get as far away as I could from the C of C and religion in general and I did a pretty good job of that for many years.  Thanks to other religious groups, Presbyterians and Baptists mainly, I was comfortable in returning to God after many years.

But then God has an uncanny sense of humor.  Of course John was a C of C through and through.  So I may be one of a few to come full circle so to speak.  Yes, I attend a ‘traditional’ C of C now.  You may be able to imagine how difficult that change was for me.  Unfortunately, many of my worst fears and nightmares of attending a C of C were fully realized in some churches.  Divorced and remarried couples are not gladly welcomed in some C of C’s.  Thankfully, in some, we were warmly received.  We were rejected in most churches in San Angelo, Texas.  Then we moved to Belleville, Illinois, where we were shunned again.  The elders just never got back to us.  It’s amazing to me how ‘christians’ often don’t treat others with the common courtesies expected by the world.  So we went to McKnight Road C of C in St. Louis where we were warmly received.  When we moved to Springboro, Ohio, the elders and most members have been supportive.  I finally understood that I have to cleanse my negative feelings toward any of God’s church whether I continue to attend a C of C or not.

I decided to give this bio a try because some seem to have similar feelings toward Lipscomb and/or the traditional C of C.  I thought my negative feelings were a personal phenomenon, not shared by others.  But after reading Jane’s e-mail, ‘Reunion Concerns’, clearly there are others that share my reluctance to re-enter that environ.  I wrote this as a catharsis for me with hopes that it may help heal others as well.

Last updated:    September 2005