Archives for category: Catholic
Meet Jennifer (Jen) Robidoux, a never married 40-something year old who’s a para-educator in a New Hampshire local public school system for elementary level students with Autism. She joined a Facebook fan page called, ‘Good Humored Single Catholics’ hoping to just socialize and have a nice friendly dialogue with other like-minded individuals.
A short time later, Ms. Robidoux engaged in an Internet dialogue on this same forum with Ed Draughn, a.k.a. “Eddini”, who’s a Magician or ‘Street Performer’ in Portsmouth NH, which is about an hour drive from where Jen resides. Due to health reasons, Ed was on Disability, resided in Public Housing, and didn’t own a vehicle. Long story short, the first face-to-face meeting between Jen and Ed was at an Olive Garden restaurant in Portsmouth.
Both agreed that the food was great, as well as the conversation, but while Ed claimed afterwards that this was an official “date”, Jen said afterwards this was NOT a date but rather just a get together of good friends. Although they still “chatted” with each other on the ‘Good Humored Single Catholics’ forum, they never had any more face-to-face meetings for about a year.
Their relationship intensified, however, when Ed discovered he was diagnosed with Stage 4 Cancer. Moving quickly ahead, they soon got married, but I’ll yield to the attached video to fill-in a lot of the ‘missing pieces’ in this story.
But Jen stayed loyal and faithful to her wedding vows, as well as her Catholic faith. In a situation which most people probably would’ve avoided having an intimate relationship with someone who was ‘terminally ill’, Jennifer embraced the opportunity to serve her husband for the rest of their lives, regardless of how long that actually lasted.
As I mentioned earlier, Jennifer is an educator for Autistic youngsters and has been doing that for about 15 years. Honestly, how many people could do that type of work for any length of time? I know that I definitely couldn’t. When it comes to displaying love and compassion to others, this lady is just simply wired differently than probably anybody else that I’ve ever met.
As for “Eddini” – incidentally, he nicknamed himself that after his childhood idol, Harry Houdini – arguably the greatest Magician of all time, whom he tried to professionally imitate and follow in his footsteps. He probably also learned, after having lived a mostly rough life up to that point, that a fantastic lady like Jennifer would love him, unconditionally, despite being terminally ill, along with any other shortcomings he might’ve had.
It should be noted here too, that Ed had a good nature to him as being a ‘Street Performer’, he was constantly trying to put a smile on peoples’ faces. For example, Ed’s nickname for Jennifer was, ‘The Miracle’, and he once told his Bride that, ‘the greatest gift he ever received was a, Straight Jacket’ (a typical prop he often used in his performances).
Ed perhaps also discovered that his loving relationship and marital experience with Jen would be a small sample of what he was in store for after he went on to be with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in Heaven throughout all Eternity.
The Catholic “saints” simply take this story to a whole new level
Personally, I was born and raised a Catholic and then when I was about 19 and joined the Air Force, I chose to convert to a Protestant type faith. But when I made my First Communion at age 7, I was tested on something called, ‘The 7 Sacraments’, which I passed. Then when I was about 15, I had to memorize the 10 Commandments to successfully pass my Confirmation. Aside from that, and perhaps praying the Rosary, I knew little to nothing about the Catholic faith.
So when Jennifer told me about how numerous, “saints” prayed and interceded to God on behalf of her and Ed, I felt like such an “Agnostic” for not having a clue of what the heck she was talking about. I mean, I was aware of some devout Catholics who put St. Christopher medals on the vehicle’s sun visor, I assume to protect them from being hurt in any car accident. Needless to say, listening to Jennifer give her testimony – especially all the stuff about the “saints”, it was all just a new eye-opening learning experience for me.
For example, Ed and Jen were engaged on January 21, which is the Feast of St. Agnes – and she just happens to be, the Saint of Engaged Couples. They both said they prayed to a number of Saints for intercession with God to find future spouses. St. Therese of Lisieux, Padre Pio, St. Rita of Casia, and, of course, the blessed Virgin Mary apparently all had their proverbial hands on bringing their marriage into fruition.
Moving right along, Ed and Jen got their Marriage License on February 14, which is the Feast of St. Valentine (a.k.a. Valentine’s Day).
The Saints’ intercession would soon play an important role on the specific dates surrounding Ed’s passing, as well. Ed died on March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day). His Wake was on March 22, the Feast Day of St. Lea of Rome – she happens to be the patron saint of…widows. Finally, Ed’s funeral was on March 23, which was the traditional Feast Day of Our Lady of Victories, it’s now known as, Our Lady of the Rosary, which is celebrated on October 7th.
Excellent Marital Relationship Compared to, the New “Normal”
Make no mistake about it, ladies and gentlemen, in order for a marriage to be “successful”, it takes a tremendous amount of commitment, passion, and, oh yeah, love.
For example, when a couple about to be married goes through their wedding vows and recites the words to each other: ‘I take this individual for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part’, is there any “meaning” or “substance” behind that statement? When America currently has a Divorce rate of about 60 percent, do most people REALLY take these wedding vows seriously?
On the popular Reality Shows, ‘The Bachelor’, and ‘The Bachelorette’, both of these ‘match-making-leading-to-wedding’ shows have been in production now for at least 20 years and have combined for a grand total of ONE (1) successful marriage between these two programs.
What’s extremely pathetic about these shows, and others similar to it, is that when ‘The Bachelor’, for example, chooses to experiment via ‘private, intimate times’ with about a dozen of the female contestants vying to ultimately become his Bride. Is this supposed to be “Love” in the 21st Century??? Personally, I would compare this to two dogs having sex, and then a month or two later, the female dog goes off and gives birth to a litter of puppies. How romantic!
Why wouldn’t that “lucky” contestant, the one who winds up with ‘the Final Rose’, feel a desire to excessively cheat on the ‘Star of the Show’, when they can see for themselves on previous episodes from that same season, the “Star” screwing (via, ‘private intimate times’) about a dozen other fellow contestants on National TV, in front of millions of viewers? Where the heck is the commitment and faithfulness in a relationship like that?
What’s good for the Goose, is good for the Gander! Any questions as to “WHY” those types of shows are so pathetically unsuccessful? More importantly, if even one TV viewer gets the very false perception that THIS is, ‘what Love is all about’ – then that is just one viewer too many, as far as I’m concerned.
I’m Truly Blessed & Honored to Have Interviewed Jennifer
First and foremost, I just hope and pray that somehow, someway Jen can just establish some healthy “Closure” with her relationship with Ed. I realize that Ms. Draughn is currently participating in a local Grief Support Group, and plans to meet with a Catholic counselor to discuss some of her issues, but sometimes when she talks about Ed, it’s almost as if his passing away just happened yesterday when, in actually, it took place a little over a year ago. Again, I’m fully aware that with spouses, family members, friends, etc., sometimes you may never really get 100 percent closure.
Secondly, I hope and pray that this video and blog can just reach out and provide the necessary information or visibility for anyone going through a similar type situation of losing a loved one. Either through a book, or maybe a media production, the individual going through grief can just find peace and comfort in their lives.
Besides the grieving aspect of Jen’s testimony, this should serve as a standard for what true love and marriage is all about – like taking your wedding vows extremely seriously. It’s the type of story that ought to be told, and re-told, over and over and over again.
To sum up this story, Jennifer herself perhaps said it best:
“We may not have received the miracle of healing that we wanted, but I believe that he (Ed) was healed in other ways. I believe family relationships were healed. And I firmly believe our relationship was a miracle, even if we only had a limited amount of time together. In fact, I had asked God for just a week of wedded bliss. He gave me an estimated 13 days and 19 hours of marriage to Eddie. But, even if our time together was short and difficult, I wouldn’t have changed one moment of it.”
One Bad Decision Away From Homelessness 