Beloved Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Sister, Aunt, Mentor & Friend
By Link Mueller
She received a number of queries from her readers about Chip and she asked me to write something about her. This is what I
wrote.
Dear Friends of Chip, Sara, and Wanda,
My beautiful, exuberant, loving wife of 46 years, Chip-Sara-Wanda Mueller died last Thanksgiving Day (Nov., 25, 2004) in the ER
at VB General Hospital with all her family present. Her mortal life touched so many people that she needed three names. She
was born Sara Lu, I gave her the nickname, Chip, when we first met because of her joyful chipmunk like spirit, and later, when
she became a church clown she also used Wanda when ³in clown². This is important to the story I am about to tell.
I believe that God, nature and human beings are interconnected in ways we cannot fathom. When I observe or study the signs of
nature and how connected plants, animals, people and God really are, it reinforces my belief that God created the world this way
with purpose. Some of these signs are common knowledge to many people. For example, most know that a red sky in the
morning means ³sailors take warning² and red sky at night means ³ sailor¹s delight². Who doesn¹t know which direction
Canadian geese fly in the Spring and the Fall. However, some things in our lives occur that are a mystery and I don¹t pretend to
understand the how's or why¹s, but I do believe that God has a hand in what happens. And so our story, or at least part of it.
Chip (I use her Chip name because I gave it to her) was not an ³outdoor girl² when we first met while I attended the Naval
Academy. After our marriage in 1958 we visited my home in Colorado for the first time and set off on our honeymoon in the
mountains of Jackson Hole, WY. Our home was a tiny pup tent and we lived in nature, visited by local inhabitants such as a cow
elk and her calf, eagles, owls. This is how we started and, although our lives were often separated by Navy deployments, Chip¹s
work with the Church, etc. we would reunite and celebrate by camping, biking, kayaking, gardening and enjoying God¹s nature.
The minister who married us wrote in our wedding book, ³ It is not the quantity of time you spend together that is important, it is
the quality². So the majority of time we were together was often connected in and with God¹s nature.
I¹ll now leap forward to last year, 2004. In late Spring we traveled to Northwestern AZ to participate in a kayaking Elderhostel in
the Black Canyon between the Hover Dam and Lake Mojave. During this time we stayed in a tiny, 1930 style motel in Chloride,
AZ, population about 150 people. Chloride¹s claim to fame in that area was a weekly, city wide, garage sale which attracted
people from Las Vegas and points beyond. Only one home in town had a garden because the town did not have a natural water
supply. The people at that home were selling seeds harvested from the flowers in their garden and I bought a large pack of
Hollyhock seeds for 75 cents. Later, during one of our desert hikes, our elderhostel guide pointed out a peculiar desert flower
called Datura Noxia. The flower was beautiful and commonly called ³Angel¹s Trumpet², but the plant was deadly and poison to
all who came in contact with it. The flower was pure white.
Upon returning to Virginia Beach I planted the Hollyhock seeds and we left for out next adventure in the mountains of Colorado.
After returning in June I was delighted to see that most of the seeds had sprouted and I set some out in our back yard. I also
noted that a large unknown plant was growing near our front door step. I was curious, so I let it grow.
In August and after a wonderful camping trip with our daughter¹s family in Virginia, the mysterious plant in front bloomed. It was
a huge Datura Noxia, native to the Southwestern desert we had just visited that Spring. It had beautiful white flowers so I let it
bloom and then removed it before the seeds could spread elsewhere. I also observed that the Hollyhocks I planted in our back
yard were doing what Hollyhocks are supposed to do, save one. Hollyhocks are biennials, and normally grow leaves the first
year and bloom the second. One plant, however, grew its leaves and also produced a huge flower stalk so big that we joked that
it was related to the beanstalk that Jack (In the beanstalk) planted.
In September we went kayaking again in our local West Neck Creek and signed up for the Between Waters bike ride on the
eastern shore. Little did we know that was to be our last visit with nature. Chip was experiencing a nagging cough, first
diagnosed as a respiratory infection, then viral pneumonia, then on November 3, Stage 4 lung cancer which had also
metastasized to her brain. Our doctors said it was treatable but not curable. During this time the Hollyhock continued to grow
and the flower stalk was about 10 feet tall with many tiny buds. It was starting to get cold at night so I expected the buds to fall off
after the first frost, but they didn¹t.
Chip informed her doctors that she was going to fight the cancer and live five more years, but God had other plans. I, and all her
family and friends prayed that she would be healed, and on Nov. 25 God healed her. He healed her of the pain, misery and
suffering that goes along with cancer, chemotherapy and radiation. Her beautiful body became dust, but whither went her
infectious giggle, exuberant spirit and effervescent soul? A friend remarked later that Chip was one of the few people who
could celebrate two holidays at the same time, Thanksgiving (Nov. 25) and Easter.
I and her children, grandchildren and sisters returned home that day to find that one the buds on the hollyhock had opened, and
it was pure white. Now you have to understand some clown theology. Whenever Chip would travel to churches as ³Wanda the
clown² she would spend time to explain that clowns really started in the early church in Rome to wake people up during the
boring Latin services. She would also explain that the clown would first paint their faces White to signify the Death of the person
and then they would put on colors to signify their resurrection as a Clown.
What does all this mean. Why a white Datura Noxia flower in our front yard, and a white hollyhock in the back? The hollyhock, by
the way continued to produce many more white flowers in the weeks following, until it was covered by white snow.
It is now January, 2005 and as I look out in our backyard it is all white. I believe that God uses nature as signposts for humans.
The Datura Noxia was a sign for the present and past and the hollyhock is a sign of the future. There are more hollyhocks from
the same package still growing in our backyard. They will bloom next summer (when they are supposed to) and I believe they
will be all the colors of the rainbow. This, to me, will be a sign from Chip and God that her spirit and soul are still present. We
just need to watch for her.
Half of Chip¹s ashes will be placed in the Columbarium at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Virginia Beach. I will take the other half
to our honeymoon camping spot in Jackson Hole, WY next summer, after the snow melts and the flowers bloom.
I will close with a quote from a favorite book of ours, Prayers of the Domestic Church by Edward Hays. ³ The most beautiful
memorial we can give to those we love is not one made of stone but is a living memory that is nourished by prayer, gratitude and
ever-deepening affection.² whither the soul? In the memories of loved ones.
Peace, love and best wishes,
Link
