AFAM Point of View

May 1, 2013 issue

By Frederick A. Hurst THE BATTLE IS “MINE” SAITH THE LORD: A FIGHTER AND CHAMPION By Robert (Bobby) Hurst Bobby Hurst is a very strong man who I am proud to have as a brother. His wife, Regina, just passed away from lung cancer. Her passing was abrupt and unexpected. Although she had suffered for years from the disease that few understand, we had every reason to believe that she would be around to complete the long- term plans we had made together ― a trip to Las Vegas this summer, a second Christmas cruise and more. We were soul mates, she and my wife, Margie, and Bobby and me. We weren’t always soul mates. Margie hardly knew Regina, whom I came to know when I was in Chicago while trying to support efforts to save a doomed West Side college Margie and I worked for. Margie was in Springfield having our last son in a safe haven from the Chicago stress. I returned to the certain demise of the college whose president was in the final throes of a losing battle with the federal government and the powerful Mayor Richard Daly. There was no win. And resistance was pure folly. But loyalty (probably misplaced) compelled me to stay and fight. It was a waste of my time. Bobby had arrived in Chicago several years before me to work at the same college and had been eaten up by the harsh internal politics and all but personally destroyed. It cost him a breach with his first family but, in his resurgence, he gained another family and Regina was part of it, which is how I came to meet her and know her well enough to know that she was an exceptional woman even at her young age. We bonded as she and others helped me through the lonely days away from my family in Springfield and I never forgot her comforting ways. Almost ten years ago, Bobby and Regina married in Houston, Texas where they both had been living since the late 70s. Although we had talked on the phone after the marriage, I hadn’t seen Regina since Chicago until a few years ago after I heard they were traveling from Houston to the Washington area for a visit. I arranged for Margie and me to meet them there. I wanted to renew my friendship with Regina. But more than that, I wanted my wife to meet her. I knew they would bond instantly because they had so much in common. And they did.

REGINA

TO KNOW HER WAS TO ADMIRE HER

Robert (Bobby) and Regina Milliner Hurst

REGINA IN THE MORNING

By Marjorie J. Hurst

I only got to know my sister-in-law, Regina Milliner Hurst, about two years ago―for any number of reasons. My husband, on the other hand, knew Regina from years ago when we lived in Chicago, long before she married his brother, Bobby in 2003. Bobby and Regina lived in Houston and although we occasionally talked on the phone, we rarely saw each other. But in the summer of 2011, we learned that Regina, whose lung cancer had been in remission for three years, had had a reoccurrence of the disease and needed to go back on chemotherapy. We, of course, called and expressed our concern and conveyed our best wishes and promised to keep her in our prayers. During our conversation, we learned that before she went back on chemotherapy, she and Bobby would be traveling to the D.C. area to attend her father’s family reunion. Rick and I made a snap decision to go and spend late Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning visiting with them at their hotel in between their family reunion activities.

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The word “MOTHER” embodies these attributes: Compassionate, Caring, Loving, Trustworthy, Honest, Smart, Protector, Sacrifice, Exercising Influence and Control. Each one of these words describes my wife, Teresa Hudson, as a mother. On July 9th, we will be celebrating a spectacular 25 years of marriage. We have two wonderful children, Paul Jr. and Ashley, ages 21 and 19 respectively. Teresa has been such a role model for our children, especially our daughter, Ashley. Ashley has developed into a lady just like her mother because Teresa invested all of her time ensuring that Ashley learned every aspect of becoming a wonderful lady. And from Teresa, Paul Jr. has learned how to respect women and how a woman should be treated and the roles that women play as a mother and a wife.