Dr. Collins on D-Day
Dr. Collins married my wife and I 17 years ago.
He was an ooold time Baptist preacher I mean that in a good sense. His church was for the community. Come if you can but there's always spaghetti dinner on Wednesday if you need it.
He once started a sermon with, "Okay I'm going to keep this short so we can beat the Methodists to the buffets".
We had to go visit him at his house. I knew he was sizing me up. He'd known my wife's family for decades. Lynchburg area but no not associated with...you know who. I knew how to behave - feet on the floor, Yes Sir No Sir, thank his wife for the coffee. He asked about my faith and I told him I'd been christened as a Presbyterian (I think that's right) and we talked. Smallish man but my wife let me know she wanted him to officiate and there was no guarantee he would.
Mind you this was literally a parlor. Perfectly furnished with the furniture you'd expect.
He handed us a copy of the vows, obviously his template. I read through it and have a question but don't ask it. It referred to my wife as "help meet".
As we are leaving I ask about the "help meet" thing,
My wife: "it's Dr. Collins.....you know he was at Normandy"
Me (US Army Cav 90-93) "Wow"
Wife: He was a Chaplain
Me: He was unarmed?!?!
There were a lot of moving parts of that operation. Thank you Dr. Collins.
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