MARY ABILENE BORN!!! Oct. 17, 1978Originating Circle:
Family
Wes Parish-Pixler
Mary Abilene Parish-Pixler
Mom and Dad Parish
Friends
Brook and Tom Henderson
Church
Ed Corn
Forsythe
est (Denver)
Joe Tanenbaum
Tova
Fred Hopkins
Candace
Linda Zraik, Sandy Speedy
What Happened:
Wes continued as the associate pastor, and he started learning first hand about being a pastor. He loved preaching but didn't get the chance very often. He put new prayers on the church's answering machine every day. He learned the hard way that moving tables for the UMW women was more important than working on a sermon.
I acted in a play at the University of Sothern Colorado, called "The Women." We drove to Colorado Springs for our est seminars.
Some time after charge conference, perhaps February (?) Wes was reassigned to a three-point charge of Ellicott, Simla and Edison-Leader United Methodist churches. He was in effect a circuit rider, and it made for a long day to drive to and preach at all those services. I'm not sure exactly where or when Mary Abilene was conceived, in Pueblo or Ellicott, but about that time. In Ellicott we lived in our first house, the parsonage next to the church. A new sanctuary had been built, I think in 1967. The old church was used for Sunday school upstairs and fellowship hall down. The parsonage in Ellicott was old, we could pull snow from the curtains in the winter. Ed Corn, the head of the trustees, said we were whiners. (He kept his own house so cold his children and wife had to huddle in blankets--and that's when they had us there as guests!) We had a pretty cat.
I designed and made banners for the church year for the Ellicott church where the parsonage was. While I participated at the other churches, Ellicott was my personal home church.
Wes and I attended the first on the road Hunger Project event in Denver and Werner came to speak. We became very active with hunger relief through the church for many years. Wes also did a lot of weddings for est folks in Denver. I wanted to do more assisting in Denver, so I got a job doing data entry at the University of Denver, shared an apartment with two other women, and took over the production department at est, as there was no staff person to cover it. I spent the weekends at home with Wes. I supervised a number of trainings while pregnant with Abi. When it got too much, I told Joe Tanenbaum I was done and moved home with Wes.
Wes and I went to home birthing classes. Our doctor said he would deliver the baby at home if we had it in Colorado Springs, and Brook offered to let us have the baby at their place. One of our members was an RN and she came by every day toward the end and became very concerned with how high my blood pressure was. When I started having pains she encouraged us to go to the hospital. Wes took me, and the doctor said I was in pre-eclampsia, no home birth, in fact, a Caesarian was ordered for the next morning, but I had to stay in the hospital where they could keep an eye on me. A Caesarian is less strenuous up front, but the recovery is longer. Abby readily took to nursing. I was tired for what seemed forever. My parents came to visit and see their first grandchild. Wes's parents came later, and Wes's dad, who was also an ordained UMC minister, baptised her in the Ellicott church.
In the winter after Abby was born Wes had to go next door to the church every day to check on the heat and the pipes. During one of the worst of the plains blizzards, the wind blew under the door and put out out the pilot light in the sanctuary building. When Wes, who was frozen, relit the pilot the gas blew up and burned off his eyebrows and singed off the hair from his head and arms. His face was bright red. I called the volunteer fire department, comprised mostly of church members, and they had him airlifted to a hospital in Colorado Springs. Fortunately, the burns were not severe.