Wisdom and Grace: Forty-six years or just yesterday?

February 14, 2022

My dearest Rodney,

We have been married now for 46 years. In some ways it seems like a long time and in many other ways it seems like yesterday. We've had some pretty rough times. But by far the good times we have shared during these 46 years have far out-weighed the bad.

It was an amazing thing when God brought us together in the early fall of 1974. I was visiting friends at the Bible College I had graduated from in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Your sister Meredy, the college secretary, asked, "My brother Rodney is home from Wyoming for the weekend. Do you want to go out with him?"

"Sure," I answered, "Why not?"

We had a delicious dinner in a local restaurant. Then suddenly the lights went out all over town! Thank goodness for the candle center piece so we could see to finish our meal! Romantic, even from the beginning.

I never heard from you again until Christmas vacation. You called and we began a courtship through Mountain Bell and the United States Postal Service. I think you knew before I did that I was "the one." You bought an engagement ring much before I knew for certain that you were "the one" for me.

On Labor Day, 1975 I said "Yes." You went back to Green River, Wyoming and I returned to Havre. We set the day for February 14, 1976.

Now just why any Montanan would get married in February with the surety of blizzards and bad roads, I since have wondered why we chose that date. But you arrived a few days before and all our family and friends made it, also.

"Believing that marriage is ordained of God

Mr. and Mrs. Wesley M. Whaley

request you to share in the joy

as their daughter

Ila Renee

is united in marriage to

Rodney Allen McClenahan

Saturday, the fourteenth

of February

at seven o'clock in the evening

Sixth Avenue Christian Church

Sixth and Sixth Street

Havre, Montana"

My sister Myrna was my Matron of Honor, followed by Sherry Landrum (college roommate), Kay Lyn Van Valkenburg (long-time friend) and Meredith McClenahan (your sister). Your brother Dan was the Best Man followed by your other brothers Monte and Gary and your cousin John Webb. Randy Hinebauch and Calvin Couch were ushers. Shirley Whaley and Susan Moore were the flower girls while my nephew Michael Whaley was the ring bearer. My brother Delbert, an ordained minister, officiated. Dorothy Williams and Michelle Henry sang "Whither Thou Goest." Myra Hedman played the piano.

And off we went for our honeymoon. The first night was in Shelby at the O'Hare Manor which we shared with the Montana State Wrestling tournament. Dear Rodney, I knew you were special when you repeatedly called the motel office requesting the wrestlers to be quiet. (Like we were going to get any sleep that night, anyways!).

The next morning, we made our way to Browning to attend church at longtime preacher and friend Ernie Whitford's church. Then we went on to the Isaac Walton Inn at Essex. On Monday we made it to our honeymoon destination Sandpoint, Idaho, and Sweitzer Basin Ski Bowl.

You were an experienced skier but I had never been on a pair of skies in my life. I hope you will forever know that it was only because of my love for you that I endured three days skiing at Sweitzer Basin and another at Big Mountain at Whitefish! Every muscle in my body screamed for attention.

On Friday evening we headed back to Havre on Highway #2. The snow was piled high on the sides of the highway. Somewhere between West and East Glacier, we saw something strange. Three cars were parked on the west lane. Each car had their bright lights on. We were blinded, not able to see anything beyond them. You slowed the car ... and then we saw why the cars were stopped! There was a fourth car side ways in our lane! The highway was iced. We could not stop and we crashed into the passenger door of that fourth vehicle. As if in slow motion, I can still see the lady sitting in the front seat as our car hit her.

The ambulance finally came to take her to the Kalispell Hospital and us to the Browning Hospital. Our preacher friend Ernie Whitford came and spent the evening with us at the Browning Hospital. We were so fortunate to not have been severely hurt. You had a major cut on your chin and broken ribs. I turned and tucked at the last second and was bruised from heard to toe on my left side. In the middle of the night, my brother arrived from Havre. Our car was totaled.

On Sunday morning, we were back at Sixth Avenue Christian Church where we had said "I do" just eight days before. The folks were glad to see us but quite taken back by the stitches on your chin, your black eye, and the fact you could hardly move from your broken ribs. And me? Well, I was still sore from using muscles I'd never used before skiing. Plus, my left side was black and blue from the impact of the accident. Indeed, we were something to see! We received lots of good-natured teasing from the congregation, "Married just a week and you are already looking pretty beaten up."

Well, Honey, that's how it all started. I could write a book ... and someday maybe I will about our life for the past 46 years.

February 26, 1976. Was that just yesterday?

All my love ... forever and always,

Ila

"For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So, they are no longer two, but one. Therefore, what God has joined together, let not men separate."

Mark 10: 7-9

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Ila McClenahan is a retired chaplain and activity director living in the Amos area north of Havre. She keeps busy writing, speaking at various events and trying to be a good grandmother.