Listen in as Jackie Calloway shares her extraordinary journey of reconciliation after a difficult divorce. Her deeply personal story of forgiveness and renewed love illustrates the incredible power of faith and determination. Dive into the heartfelt conversation about overcoming grief, as Jackie reveals intimate moments from her life with her late husband. Angie and Jackie’s conversation offers hope and inspiration, revealing how listening and trusting in divine guidance can lead to unexpected blessings.
00:00:30 Introduction to The Good News with Angie Austin
00:12:02 Reconciliation Story of Jackie Calloway and Her Husband
00:20:20 Jackie’s Journey Through Grief After Losing Her Husband
SPEAKER 02 :
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SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome to The Good News with Angie Austin. Now, with The Good News, here’s Angie.
SPEAKER 08 :
Hey there, friend. Angie Austin here with The Good News. Beatrice Bruno, the Drill Sergeant of Life, and Michelle A. Rahn. Beatrice getting ready to take off on a new adventure soon, which I hope we’ll have time to talk about.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey, B. Praise the Lord. God bless y’all today.
SPEAKER 08 :
Good to be here. All right. And Michelle Rahn, she has the word of the week, as she always does. Welcome, Michelle.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, hey, I’m so happy to be with both of you. You just brighten my day, that’s for sure.
SPEAKER 08 :
Ditto, ditto. All right, let’s start with your word of the week. What’s your tale this week?
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, the word is prismatic, prismatic. And the meaning of the word is reflecting light the way a prism does. I googled the word prismatic, and several synonyms came up, including bright, flashy light. Vivid, vibrant. And so just to share a little bit, several, several years ago when I went out for the Quinny thing of Miss Senior America, you had to write a philosophy of life and then you had to speak the philosophy of life. It took me seven months to write it and they only give you 35 seconds to say it. So you can imagine. that it was quite a journey for me to do. But part of my philosophy of life was the following. It says, we all are aware of the power of a single candle in a dark room. So it is with us, for we can be prismatic women. Just as a prism uses its light to disperse light, We can try to live in ways knowing that our reflected light can affect the actions and attitudes of others. And I wrote this nearly 20 years ago, and I feel like today we truly need to realize what every small deed we can do will make a difference in the life of one. My prayer in the mornings before my feet hit the ground is that Jesus, please use me today for your will, which, if I’m honest, means I have to make myself open to what he has in mind. And the people in whom I come in contact are literally sent by him. He’s given me free will, which means that I have a choice how I greet these people, what I do with the situation and so forth. So my prayer for all of us this morning is Heavenly Father, May we see our world through the prism of the cross, tinged with bloodstained mercy and bathed in your grace light. Amen. So there we go.
SPEAKER 04 :
What do you think, B? Oh, my goodness. On Sunday, I was on my way to visit a church and. I had stopped at a stoplight on 6th Avenue here in the Aurora area. And you know how when you stop at a stoplight, when somebody else pulls up beside you, you look over and see who it is. You know, you just glance. And I looked over and the little guy raised his hand to say hello. Well, my window was up and I raised my hand to say hello. And then the Lord said to me, he said, go ahead and speak to him. And so I rolled the window down. It was the man and his wife, I guess, in the front seat and then his son in the back seat. And I looked over and said, hey, dude, God bless you today. And he looked at me and he got this big smile on his face. Okay. And he said, God bless you too. You have a good day. I said, you have a good day too. By that time, the light changed and I went on, you know, but it felt good just to shine that light. Okay. Be that prism of light to somebody. I didn’t know these folks and we’ll probably never see them again on this side of heaven. Okay. Okay. but God put in my heart, just say, God bless you. God bless y’all today. And did, and he just smiled, you know, and if we’re at that prism of light, if we can just show that light, you know, I have to go back to, um, several years ago in St. Louis, the young man that went in there and shot up the, um, the professional, the, um, musical art school. It was a high school for people in the arts industries. And, um, He shot them up. And when they he shot, I guess he shot himself or the cops. I don’t know which one it was, but he ended up dead as well. And they found a note from him that said, I don’t have any family. I don’t have any friends. I’ve never had a girlfriend. I didn’t just didn’t want to live anymore. And what if somebody had shined a light on this young man?
SPEAKER 07 :
Mm hmm.
SPEAKER 04 :
He would not have committed those atrocities to though he killed a 15 year old student and a teacher. He would not have committed those atrocities if a light had been shined on him. Because, see, if we were the light of the world. And if we go and let that light so shine in the world, then people appointed to God, to Jesus, you know, and that’s going to it’s not going to solve everything because it’s a lot of mess going on in our world today. But if we would allow ourselves to be that be prismatic and be that prism of light shining in the world, how much better would this world be able to operate? That’s what I got, Angie. And thank you, Mimi, for that word today. That was awesome.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, I love how you interpreted and you went on with it. That was fantastic. Thank you. Well, you know I’m a preacher.
SPEAKER 04 :
Preachers preach.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, we know it. And you’re so open to listening to, you know, the Lord’s, you know, speaking into you. Promptings. Yes, promptings, yes. So besides the stoplight roll down the window prompting, I understand something else has been prompted before.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, I am being prompted to move to Macon, Georgia. I will be working with a nonprofit and for-profit organization down there. I have been asked to be the general manager, and this happened. I met the chick that started the organization back in 2015 when she and a friend of mine were appointed as ambassadors to the UN. And I met her and we just we just liked each other and we stayed in contact. And she contacted me early last year sometime. I think it might have been the end of the year before that and asked me, would I come on board to write for the organization? And so I said, sure. And then just over the past, I don’t know, maybe four or five months, they have looked at me and said, hey, would you like to be the general manager? You know, and I was like, OK, Lord, is this my next assignment? Sure enough, this is my next assignment. You know, I don’t know what God is going to use me to do in Georgia. I haven’t been in the southern atmosphere yet. To live for quite some time. And it’s totally different than the Western atmosphere than here in the Rocky Mountains atmosphere and other places I’ve lived and stuff. And it’s going to be quite interesting. But, you know, I trust God. And when God tells me to do something, he knows nine times out of ten, I’m going to fuss with him a little bit. I’m like, well, why do you want me to do that? I just don’t understand. Are you sure, God? You know, but at the end of the day, I’m going to go ahead and do what he says to do because it’s not about me. It’s about him. And who knows? I may. And I know I am. I’ll be going down there to be a very prismatic person and shine the light of God in that area. Yeah. You will.
SPEAKER 08 :
It’s exciting. You know, I think about since, you know, your husband passed several years back, just that, you know, you moved down to Texas and then you moved to the Pacific Northwest and then you moved to Virginia and now you’re headed down to Georgia. I guess the Northeast and the Midwest will be the last two, you know, edges of the United States you’ll be going to. But and then when you go like. Do you have an end date? Do you just move and look for a place to live and then just keep talking to the Lord and see where it takes you?
SPEAKER 04 :
You know what? And this is strange the way God does this, Angie, I’ll be honest with you. Because when I went to Virginia, God had brought me back here to Colorado from Washington State. And I came for November because my daughter was having surgery. And then I was supposed to go to Arizona to visit friends for Thanksgiving. Well, COVID started rising back up. And God said, no, I want you to stay here. He said, stay here and rest in me. And so I was here. And then around March, April, I said, well, God, you know, it’s getting ready to get hot. I need to go and get my summer clothes from my RV because my RV was still out in Washington state. And he said, go out there. And he said, I want you to sell it. I sold the doggone thing in one day. When I got back, he started dealing with me. He said, you’re going to the East Coast. I said, Lord, I don’t like that. That’s when I start fussing with God. Lord, I don’t like the East Coast is human. I don’t want to go to the East Coast. He said, you’re going to the East Coast. And so he said, choose a place in Virginia. And I said, okay. I said, as long as I’m close to the beach. He said, okay. And so Hampton, Virginia, here I come. And I was out there for 13 months. And at the end of that assignment, he’s and I heard him just as clear as me talking to y’all right now. He said, you’re done. The assignment is over because I went out there with the express intention, which I didn’t know at the time. He wanted me to talk to my dad about coming to live with me. And my dad refused. And he said, I’ve been in New York almost all my life. I’m not leaving New York. OK. And at that point right there, God said to me, he said, your assignment is over.
SPEAKER 05 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. Yeah. And I stayed out there for 13 months.
SPEAKER 08 :
And I remember you did get quite a bit of time with your dad while you were out there.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. Yeah. I went up every several weeks to New York. I took Amtrak going from Virginia to New York to go up and see him in the nursing home and stuff, checking on him. And yeah, that was it. And since I’ve been back out here, I haven’t been able to do that. But I don’t know what God is planning, because when I go to Georgia, I’ll be closer to our old homestead in Aiken, South Carolina. My uncle is still there. I have an aunt in Columbia, South Carolina. My oldest sister is in North Augusta, South Carolina. I don’t know if God will give my dad another chance and say, OK, I’m telling you, you need to live with one of your daughters. You know, and I don’t know what God’s plan is, but he knows that I’m willing to be made willing.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes. Wow. That’s a lot of family in one spot. And up in New York, your dad’s kind of on his own. There’s not a lot of family up there.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, he has his his two sisters are there and their families. But and my my oldest aunt, she lives closest to him. She goes to see him, you know, every week and what have you. And his youngest sister, she lives in Brooklyn. And they’re all my dad is 92. He just turned 92. And his the closest sister to him is 78. Let me see. I’m 64, 74, 68. She’s 68, I believe, 78, getting ready to turn 79. And so, you know, they’re all much older and but she’s the closest one to him and she takes care of all his stuff, his financial stuff and what have you. So he’s got he’s got his sisters there. Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right. So in the last, you know, you know, couple of months, I know you’ve each had your own with this, you know, this going on. And Michelle, I know you’ve had some struggles in the last few months. What, you know, gets you through, Michelle, on like a day when you’re like, oh, today’s not going that great.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, it’s just, you know, I think a lot of times, you know, It’s the Heavenly Father just saying, you’ve been on the go all your life. It’s time for you to just kind of slow down a little bit. So that’s kind of where I’m at. And it’s hard because I like being on the go. But he’s got something in mind, and I intend to listen in the best of my ability, period.
SPEAKER 08 :
I wonder how, because you do so many of these kid, grandkid things, are there times when you’re still able to do everything you want to do?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, sure. It’s just slower. It’s very much slower, for sure. And that’s okay. You know, it just has to be okay. So I’m grateful that I can still be doing that. I went over to the Western Slope this weekend to see our one granddaughter and see where she’s in college. And I just move slower, period. But they’re great to let me do that. And God is good to have me move. You know, there’s always something we can be grateful for. You know, sometimes look for it, but we can look for it.
SPEAKER 08 :
When my mom got her new knees, I thought she’d just be like walking around like me. But, you know, that when you’re in your 80s, that wasn’t necessarily the case. She’s not really any faster. She just got rid of all the pain. So right there, the pain is gone. All right. Michelle A. Ron dot com, a drill sergeant of life dot com. Love you both. Such a blessing to have you on the good news. Thank you, ladies. Love you all.
SPEAKER 09 :
God bless you. Thank you. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER 1 :
God bless you.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
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SPEAKER 08 :
Hey there, friend. Angie Austin here with the good news. So pleased to have Mrs. Jackie Calloway on the show again. She is going to be one of our regulars. So excited about that. She is a regular listener and she was introduced to me by another friend on the program, Monique Davis. And last week we talked about her book. She divorced her husband, and then they got back together, and then they started a ministry counseling other couples. So, Jackie, give us just the synopsis of that. Just go back a teeny bit in time and tell us about how you ended your marriage and then were led back to restart your marriage. Welcome.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes. Thank you, Angie. Ronnie and I were married for 28 years, and because of infidelity, we divorced, and we were divorced for seven years. And after seven years of divorce, God miraculously reconciled us, first to himself and then to one another. And after that, we were married for a glorious marriage. 24 more years.
SPEAKER 08 :
28 glorious years. So all of that time, like, I can’t believe that you were married that long, divorced that long, and remarried that long. So what’s the total in all the years?
SPEAKER 1 :
52.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, my goodness. 52 years.
SPEAKER 08 :
Now, when the Lord really called on you to get back to your husband, you’re very honest in the book that you… I was furious.
SPEAKER 06 :
I was absolutely furious. He didn’t tell me to marry him. He said, I want you to listen to Ronnie Calloway. But see, the Lord set me up, first of all, because a month before that time, the Lord had asked me to meditate on on Proverbs 3, 5 through 8. Okay. And he told me, don’t read anything else. Just meditate on that scripture. And that is, trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. Well, when the Lord spoke to me and said, I want you to listen to Ronnie Calloway, I said, no! I won’t listen to him. You know he’s a liar. You know I can’t trust him. He said, I’m not asking you to trust him right now. I’m asking you to trust me with all your heart and lean on to your own understanding. That scripture that I had ingested and memorized and And so that’s all he asked me to do was just listen to him. So Ronnie had already told me that. He had prayed and asked the Lord to give him his family back.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, the three girls. You’ve got three girls. Three daughters. Yeah, to step back one second. I’m almost done reading Love That Would Not Let Me Go, Jackie Calloway’s book. And you’d mentioned last week that when you got ready to start Love That Would Not Let Me Go, Your husband said, you can say everything I did, all the cheating, you know, the whatever, drugs or everything. He said, you’re allowed to say all the horrible things I did.
SPEAKER 06 :
He told me, I know that you will tell the truth, so I have no restrictions. I said, okay, I’m going to tell the truth. And I told the truth.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. I mean, you laid it on like I’m reading and you’re at the part where you’re supposed to forgive him, you know, and here you end up helping all these other people with their marriages after the two of you got together. But when the Lord told you to forgive him, like I’m not ready to forgive him.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. I was just the Lord had to work on me. And it is. It’s so good, though, the way the Lord will do things in your life if you’re obedient. And people ask me all the time, how could you forgive him of all of that? Because, like I said, it wasn’t just one woman. Ronnie was a serial adulterer.
SPEAKER 08 :
He said he always had a woman on his side. He said he thought that he deserved one.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s what he said. That’s what he said.
SPEAKER 08 :
Wowza.
SPEAKER 06 :
But I tell you, so it was a lot to forgive.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 06 :
But at the same time, the way that I did forgive was I looked at myself. And God had forgiven me of a debt that I could never pay. Could never pay. And who was I not to forgive Him?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
And I had to go past the feelings and just do the right thing. Wow. And that’s what I did. By the grace of God, only by the grace of God could I have forgiven him. But I’m so glad that I did.
SPEAKER 08 :
Wow. So he was like a whole new marriage, a whole new person the last 20 some odd years with him.
SPEAKER 06 :
A whole new person. Wow. There was not a hint of the old Ronnie in this. He told me, he said, I want to make up for all that has happened. And I want to prove to you that I am God’s man and that I’ll be the husband that you’ve always wanted. And he was more than that. Wow.
SPEAKER 08 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 06 :
This man loved me. He loved me. He was so affectionate. When we’d go out to dinner, he always wanted to sit beside me so that he could rub my thighs under the table. Every morning when I got up and he would do this loud whistle. and he would say come here with your fine self give me some sugar he was such if only god could have done this and made this change and before we married the lord told me he said i will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten the canker worm the caterpillar That great army that I sent among you. And the restoration is not like, when we think of restoration, we think of restoring something to its original state.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
When God says restoration, it is above and beyond what we could have ever asked or thought of. He is plenty too much.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s powerful. Okay, so you and I, you know, in conversing, you know, in our free time, we’re discussing losing him a few years ago. And as you know, one of my very good friends on the show, Beatrice Bruno, she also lost her husband a little bit before you lost yours. Yours has been gone just over two, and Beatrice’s now four. And so I’ve really tried to just… be at her side during the grief process. And, uh, it’s, you know, she was so in love with that man. I mean, in crazy about that guy, every hair on his head, she was crazy about. And you said that God helped deliver you from the grief. Would you mind talking a little bit about that? And, and, and, you know, when you lost him and, you know, obviously, you know, having those, that remarriage, the new marriage was so good. It must’ve been really a tough hit. Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
It was, because we talked about it, though, and he passed December 7, 2020, on D-Day. I’ll always remember that part. But he had cancer, and it was really a blow for both of us. when he started to get sick. The day that I took him to the hospital was the day that they closed the hospitals and they told me you can stay until 12 o’clock tonight and then you can’t come back because of COVID.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER 06 :
And so he was in the hospital for one week And that was a week of hell for him because he had never been sick. He’d never been in the hospital. That was the first time he’d ever been in the hospital. Oh, my goodness. He would call me at night and say, Jack, pray for me. Pray. They had to give him, they gave him seven blood transfusions in a week. It was just. And I couldn’t get to him. So they told him he needed surgery. And he refused the surgery. And they told him if he didn’t do the surgery, he was going to die. And he said, well, if I’m going to die, I’m going to die with my baby. And he said, push me into the parking lot. And she will pick me up. And so one day I am coming out of Sprouts and I get this call that Ronnie has checked himself out of the hospital and you need to go pick him up. I was like, what?
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER 06 :
I went to pick him up and he was in a wheelchair. He was so glad to see me and we hugged and i was taking him home but i didn’t know to what and i got him home i had this friend who is a nurse and she told me i will help you and uh long story short i know ronnie used to say it’s too late this is already a long story but he came home we got him situated he was bleeding and really, really sick. He had sepsis. And we prayed and the nurse came in and helped me and showed me what to do. And he was sick for, I tell you, God healed him. First of all, God healed him. And he was able to actually get up But it was our love that we had for one another. It was the grace of God that walked us through that time. And then later on, he got sick again. And during that time, though, he was only bedridden for two months. And we had to put him in hospice. But during that time, we had time to talk. And we talked about everything. We reminisced. We talked about when we first got married. We talked about the kids and all the things we had been through and how good God had been to us.
SPEAKER 07 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 06 :
And we made love. without having sex during that time.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, that connection that the two of you had. I cannot believe that we’re out of time because this story I could listen to for an hour. But fortunately, you’re back next week. And if people want to reach out and find Jackie and get the book we’re talking about, Love That Would Not Let Me Go, Jackie Calloway, we’ll talk to you next week. God bless you, friend. Okay.
SPEAKER 03 :
God bless you. Thank you for listening to The Good News with Angie Austin on AM670 KLTT.
Listen in as Jackie Calloway shares her extraordinary journey of reconciliation after a difficult divorce. Her deeply personal story of forgiveness and renewed love illustrates the incredible power of faith and determination. Dive into the heartfelt conversation about overcoming grief, as Jackie reveals intimate moments from her life with her late husband. Angie and Jackie’s conversation offers hope and inspiration, revealing how listening and trusting in divine guidance can lead to unexpected blessings.
