The MONAHANS NEWS

Weekly Newspaper for Ward County


News|Sports||Archives|Classified|Advertising|Main Menu

Opinion

September 18, 1997

Monahan's Well


By Jerry Curry

They say it comes in threes


There is a modern cliche, an axiom, an old saying, nearly a proverb, that tragedy comes in threes. I've been in this business long enough to know that cliches, axioms and proverbs get that way because they generally prove to be true in the experience of the person mouthing the aforesaid phrases.

I think it is true again.

Within about a week of each other, two truly great women, Diana Spencer and Mother Teresa died. In about another week, Marylyn Thurman-Lewis, late city secretary and city administrator of Grandfalls died.

I do not suggest (although I might) that Marylyn was a saint but she did do her job and she did it well and she helped people along the way..

A lot of people in Grandfalls thought so. The Union Church was packed on Saturday. It wasn't the millions that mourned Mother Teresa and Diana Spencer. But there were more than a hundred or so, maybe more and in a small town, in a rural county, in the West Texas Desert that is a lot of people. I don't think Union Church will count that many in a congregation before next Christmas or Easter, if then.

Marylyn Thurman-Lewis is gone from Ward County.

She took a sense of humor with her and she took a piece of this community. She was one of the first people I met when I rolled into this county last Fall. The first thing she told me was how I'd better not misspell her name. I hope I never did.

The second thing she told me was everyone has some good in them and then, she laughed and named a name that is the name of an old adversary of her's in her fight for what she always thought was right.

This was, is, a good lady.

She held Christmas parties for those who couldn't get home for Christmas although she did warn that the drunks might get thrown out with the coyotes if they imbibed a little too much at the manse she and David shared on the edge of Royalty.

She helped people.

She did have a tad of temper, a temper tempered with what I perceived to be a genuine concern for people.

The last time I saw her she was sitting in a wheel chair at Furr's in Monahans and she said she just had to stop and rest awhile. That was a couple of weeks ago.

There is no way I can bring any words of solace to those who loved her like her husband, David' and her son, Mike.

Marylyn Thurman-Lewis.

Good-by, Marylyn.

There'll never be your like again.

And tragedy does come in threes.

Copyright 1997 by Ward Newspapers, Inc.
Steve Patterson, Publisher
107 W. Second St., Monahans TX 79756
Phone 915-943-4313, FAX 915-943-4314
e-mail news@bitstreet.com

Return to Menu

Return to Home Page