Awashing machine and Post Its are the tools of choice for Anne Monroe when she wants to show her loved ones just how much she cherishes them.
LAKE CHARLES – A washing machine and Post Its are the tools of choice
for Anne Monroe when she wants to show her loved ones just how much she
cherishes them.
Randy Monroe, Anne’s husband, is the minister of music at
Trinity Baptist in Lake Charles. He says his wife goes way beyond the
call of duty when it comes to doing laundry for her family, especially
for their two grown sons, Caleb, 20, who still lives at home, and
Joshua, 25.
She continues to do all Caleb’s laundry, and, for a time after he was
married, she did Joshua and his wife’s laundry, even going so far as to
pick up their laundry, Pastor Monroe said. “She is so faithful,” Monroe
said of his wife. “She waits on [our sons] hand and foot.
She does everything for them.”
“I have been teased about that for years,” Anne said. “It gives us something to laugh about.
“Most moms would not do that, I know,” she continued. “I take
every opportunity, even laundry, to make sure [our sons] don’t forget
me. They’ll have laundry for the rest of their lives. And years
from now, when they’re doing laundry, they’re going to think of
me.”
Laundry isn’t the only way she ministers to the men in her life.
“Post-It is my friend,” she said, explaining how she likes to leave
encouraging little notes for her sons and husband in unexpected
places. “I write notes all the time, just to let them know
they’re on my heart even when they’re not with me.”
When her sons were younger and attended camp, she’d pack their
suitcases and leave notes in between pairs of underwear. “Have a
great day!” she’d write. Or, sometimes, she’d put a note on the
toothpaste: “Please use toothpaste when you brush your
teeth.”
Her sons would come home saying how they and their friends found the
notes funny, she said. But by and large, most of their friends said
they wished their mothers would do that.
When the couple is away, she leaves notes around the house, on the
kitchen countertop, on the bathroom mirror, and on the refrigerator for
Caleb, telling him how much she loves him.
She also puts notes in her husband’s luggage when he has to go away.
The Monroes, married in June 1979, have been at Trinity in their hometown of Lake Charles since March, 2002.
“She is my friend,” Monroe said of his wife. “She is my
partner in every sense of the word. She is the beautiful love of
my life.”