Journey Comes Full Circle
For Mother And Son

Wilma Lipps (seated center) is surrounded by her new found family during a going away party at Arab Golden Living Healthcare.         Photo by Gayla Hayes

April 2, 2008
Life sometimes appears to follow a winding path, seemingly without direction and no chance to return to where you once felt happiness and safety.  For some forty-one years Wilma and Danny Lipps wandered along this path, not sure if they would ever return to the mother and son relationship that was torn apart so many years before. 

In early 2007 their paths began to find the direction they both longed for.  Eventually their paths would meet in a tear filled reunion at the Arab Golden Living Healthcare facility ((read their reunion story).  Forty-one years of separation had ended but the path was still filled with a few twists and turns before the two could rejoin their lives completely.

Last week the journey for both came full circle as Danny and family arrived in Arab to take Wilma home to live with them permanently.

For Danny it was something he knew that he had to do from the very beginning, but working out the details took several months.  First of all he wasn't sure how his mother, who is deaf and mute, would adjust to such a radical change after spending much of her adult life in surroundings such as the Golden Living facility.  A trial trip to their home in Illinois around Christmas convinced Danny that the transition would not be a problem.  After the trial visit it was a matter of clearing the legal obstacles.

After Wilma's mother was killed in an automobile accident in 1967, Wilma had been shuffled from relative to relative and from facility to facility.  Eventually she came to Arab to live with her brother Carl Lipps.  Carl was her legal guardian until he died in 1994.  After his death, Barbara Lipps became Wilma's guardian.  In order to move Wilma to Indiana, Danny had to assume the responsibilities of guardianship.  Those steps were finally complete last month and plans were made to return to Arab and to take Wilma home to Illinois.

Wilma Lipps (seated) with here long time sponsor and guardian
Barabara Lipps                                                       Photo by Gayla Hayes

Last Thursday the staff and residents of Arab Golden Living said goodbye to Wilma with a party.  The party was bittersweet for the staff since Wilma had been a part of their lives for almost twelve years.  Tears of happiness mixed with tears of sadness punctuated the event.

According to Barbara Lipps, Wilma has quickly settled in to her new surroundings.  Danny's wife Cindy, also hearing impaired, has been busy teaching her to communicate with sign language.  Apparently a quick study, she has been using some of the sign language she has learned to play jokes on Danny.

She has also integrated well into Danny and Cindy's work with the Salvation Army.  One of her favorite activities at Arab Golden Living was the weekly bingo games.  Wilma is right at home with the bingo games at the Salvation Army Center.

Danny says that it was the Lord who brought them together.  The circle is now complete....mother and son reunited and caring for each other....Grandchildren on grandmother's knee..... a rebuilding of lost lives....may the circle never be broken!