Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens
Date: November 02, 2019 01:21PM
Reepicheep - Thank you for the info on the pre-Blix Marilyn. You have a history that precedes mine even though I know you must be WAY younger than me.
The friend that asked me about Marilyn being duplicitous before or during early Blix was glad to read what you wrote Reep. We are still closing gaps in what people knew or know.
Imapurple - I am so grateful for your speaking. I know it is very hard. I, too, would rather read it than speak it.
I was the money person during John's illness and after his death. Bob Barton accompanied John's body to the cemetery and stayed with him through the embalming process. I went to the mortuary with Marilyn and others (I'm sure Gary was there) to be there to write the check for the coffin they were picking out. Then John was placed in the coffin and returned to Kling as Imapurple described. For the next day or two, Marilyn would open the coffin and cry over John's body (so I was told), and she placed peoples' relics in the coffin to be buried with him. One of JRS's last words to me was for me to have a baby, so I gave Marilyn a little ivory wall hanging that I had from when I was a baby to put in JRS's coffin. She told me she placed it over his crotch. I was too much in shock to even react to what a crass statement that was.
I knew that Marilyn had put Bob McClane's Bible (one he had shared with JRS that had a lot of writing inside and profound meaning to Bob) in the coffin and a Bible that belonged to Miller that was deeply special to him. I learned in the last six months that Marilyn was calling people and asking them for their most personal and prized possessions to bury with John. I wish my McClane cousins had their dad's Bible, and I'm sure the Miller family wishes they had John's. It was Marilyn who took those things from them, and from what we know now, we can only ask, why?"
After a couple of days, Marilyn had my ex-husband, Dan Luebbers, come to Kling and seal the coffin. Then for two days, she hosted an open house, and people passed through from the back yard, through the kitchen to the living room where Marilyn received them, and they could say goodbye to the coffin.
After the two days (maybe three) reception, I went with Marilyn and Gary, and maybe Marti (Rick couldn't be bothered) to Valhalla Mortuary where they had John's coffin placed in a wall vault until they could take him to Shiloh for burial. They were avoiding Iowa at that point because of the lawsuits I've mentioned before. So the mystery of what was done with John's body right after he died was only a weird stopgap measure because Marilyn was avoiding testifying.
When they finally felt they could go to Iowa, I made the financial arrangement with the airline and the local mortuary to have John's body taken out to Shiloh. I don't think I was still involved on the Iowa end of things when we were all there because I was immediately potatoed at that time.