These are the words that Elder Peggy Cox shared at the memorial service for my dad July 3, 2011. Our thanks to Peggy for her openness and love.
"Robin had a gift of speaking with everyone around him and a gift of listening close enough to hear their need. As he was undergoing cancer treatment at St. Mary’s Medical Center he spoke with many of the other patients there and became aware that many of the people who drove to Walla Walla each day to have treatment chose to drive home in the afternoons only to return the following day because they could not afford the cost of staying in Walla Walla on top of the other costs of the treatment.
He came to the session meeting in November 2009 with a vision for a house that the church owned. He wanted to renovate it and allow patients of the cancer center to stay in it free of charge while they were here for treatments. He knew it would be a huge financial burden lifted from the patients who were generally exhausted and sometimes nauseated after the treatments.
I also knew how important the house would be to other cancer patients and their families, since my sister Pam had spent months in a Ronald McDonald house in Denver in 2008 while her 7 year old daughter Erin underwent cancer treatment for a brain tumor. So I volunteered to help with the renovation.
Judy Holloway and I became the coordinators of the transformation. We were given a budget of $5000 to begin the project. We walked through the house taking notes of the major things that needed accomplished… all the plumbing needs to be replaced, no furnace-existing heaters had mouse nests in them, bathroom walls were rotten, windows need replaced, needs new carpet and linoleum throughout house, needs new kitchen including cabinets and appliances, spiral staircase to attic removed, interior and exterior painted, new back porch including roof, new fence. As we walked back out of the house we did not have a warm fuzzy feeling about making it into a home. It was overwhelming at first for both of us.
But as we began making the calls to have professionals come and look at plumbing, and heating, we were amazed at the excitement and generosity of people to be a part of the project. Robin’s enthusiasm soon spread throughout the congregation. Every time someone else would call us with a donation of another item we needed we just shook our heads in amazement of God’s provision and watched the house being changed before our eyes.
During the time that I was helping with the house, my niece passed away. After a couple months, when I returned to working on the house, I had one of the volunteers tell me that it was good therapy for me to work on the house to help me through the hard time of grieving for Erin. They were right. We knew that the people using the house after completion would be blessed, but little did we realize that each of the volunteers would be blessed as they came to help with the project. The friends we made, the skills we learned, the laughs we shared filled the house with memories.
Robin left for Seattle in August of 2010 to begin his treatment there. Our group continued rain or shine to work diligently on the house. Focused work days brought in more volunteers to help! The volunteers ranged from 9-75 years old. Our goal was to have the house done when he got home in November.
Robin’s treatment plan was changed so he came home in September. He would stop by the house every day for a progress report usually after his treatment at St. Mary’s. There were days that he said he was not feeling very well at all, but he was so excited to see the house taking shape. I looked forward to his daily visits so I could see that he was okay enduring his treatments. If he stopped by and I had already left for the day he would call me at home to check in with me. He enjoyed knowing that yet again he had used his gift of seeing potential in people to grow another Christian leader in our church by watching me work outside my comfort zone on leading this project. He started every conversation with "General Cox", and he left messages on my answering machine addressing me as General Cox. I would only chuckle at his comment.
On October 24, 2010 he dedicated the house now known as the Wasser House and its ministry.
He used the verse from Haggai 2:9 in his sermon in November 7, 2010 -- “The GLORY of this present House will be Greater than the GLORY of the former House, and in this Place I will grant PEACE,” Declares the LORD Almighty."
The next day he came to the Wasser house and said he thought that verse spoke about the house and he wanted it displayed. We printed the verse and had it framed and placed it on the living room wall where it still hangs today.
On November 15, 2010 one year after he came before the session with his vision for the house, we handed over keys to St. Mary’s for the first family to use the house.
Pastor Robin’s prayer for the house was that God would use the beauty, charm and love that transformed the house to encourage and bless the families that will occupy it for years to come and that the guests will feel God’s nearness and find both physical and spiritual healing as they share in life together with us, their neighbors, at College Place Presbyterian Church.
Robin knew he could not take away the pain and heartache of the journey these people were on, but he did know that he could give them a little hope when they needed it by having a place to call their home away from home.
After the house was structurally ready for guests, we began getting furniture donated to fill each room. The end result for the decorating theme was jokingly described as: Egyptian Renaissance. Which is fitting since it truly will be a place and time for renaissance; for revival!
Volunteers from our church came forward who wanted to clean the house on a weekly basis, to meet with the new guests as they came to town for treatment and to make meals or baked goods for the people as they underwent their treatment. Robin’s dream was realized. Robin definitely treated the people as neighbors, checking in with them during treatment or in the evenings. I agree with what the first family said “This house is a blessing. And Robin… he is heaven sent. I think he is an angel in disguise.”
The house has been used on a regular basis since the day we turned over the keys to St. Mary’s in November 2010. The guests have stayed an average of 8 weeks at a time in the house. The third family just finished their treatment and left their “home away from home”.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson describes Robin’s rule for his life:
"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
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