How I met Darrell and Marilyn Truitt (the Angels who showed such love to strangers)
It was 1981. I was a young mother of 18. My husband and I had to drive from Moline, Illinois to the University of Iowa Hospital in Iowa City for medical tests for my husband. It was supposed to be a long day, but we planned to drive home that evening. We had the baby with us.
After spending an entire day at the hospital undergoing all kinds of tests, we walked out to the parking lot to our car, a 1968 Dodge Charger. The car would not crank. My husband looked under the hood and did everything he could, but it just would not crank. I had the diaper bag with enough diapers for the day and had only one diaper left in the bag.
We called his mom back in Moline. She contacted a distant relative of hers who worked at the hospital and lived in Iowa City. This relative was a man in his 40's or 50's. We did not know him. He came and picked us up and brought us to his home. His wife fixed us supper. He went to the store and bought a big box of disposable diapers for the baby. (We used cloth diapers only, because the disposable diapers were too expensive for our budget).
I must have looked pretty rough because after supper the wife guided me back to their master bedroom. It was a huge room with a large bed and heavy drapes on the windows. She told me I needed to sleep, that I was worn out. She gently took the baby out of my arms and covered me with blankets and turned out the light. The room was cool and dark. I awoke 15 hours later. My husband had slept on the couch so as not to wake me and between he and the hosts my baby was well cared for.
They fixed us breakfast and gave us brown lunch bags with sandwiches for the trip home. The host had somehow arranged for our car to be fixed. I don't remember the details on that part and was probably sleeping through it anyway.
So, this stranger, this distant relative of my husband's family opened up their home to us. They fed us two meals, bought diapers for our baby, gave up their master bedroom for me to get much needed sleep and arranged physically and financially for our car to be fixed.
This man and his wife were like angels to us.
I offer my deepest condolences to Jennifer and the rest of their family. Know that both Darell and Marilyn will always be remembered by me in the most loving way. I have often paid their kindest forward to others who have crossed my path in life - I thought of them often during those times. So, their legacy of kindness and generosity toward strangers lives on.
