by Toni Fauquher as shared to Ella Reff
I grew up in Winter Park, Florida in the 50’s and 60’s which was an amazing time to live there. My family consisted of an older brother and two older sisters. We were raised in the Lutheran Church where I was baptized and confirmed. All my family was regularly active in our church.
In 1968 I moved to Muncie so my first husband could attend Ball State. I knew Muncie well as both my mom and dad were born there, and I had several aunts and uncles there.
In 1981, Terry Fauquher and I were married, and we blended a family of 5 young children. In 1982 we moved to Orlando to be close to my family and to further Terry’s career. By 1991 our oldest, Cherish was married and our son Chris was in the US Navy and we decided to move back to Yorktown to be close to family.
I graduated from beauty school in the mid 60’s and was always a hair stylist. When I returned to the Muncie area, I joined the staff at JJ’s Beauty Salon on Wheeling Avenue and began a lifelong friendship with Debbie and Joe Dolan. While working there in the mid 90’s I was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease known as PKE. One of the side effects was the beginning of the loss of my eyesight. After many eye surgeries the net effect was that I began to go blind. Not being able to practice a profession that I loved I needed to take a different direction to make a living. I graduated from Alexandria School Scientific Therapeutics with a degree in massage therapy. At the time I was one of the only 500 Primmer Deep Therapy massage specialists in the world. I accomplished all of this without being able to see classroom instruction. It also necessitated taking all exams verbally. When I took my Indiana State Licensing exam, I answered all 500 questions correctly. The state examiner who read the test to me said no one to that point had ever scored a perfect score.
After graduation I set up practice at a shop on Wheeling Avenue run by Bev Woody. She was a devout Nazarene, and she became an enormous influence on me. It was also about this time that my mother became ill with breast cancer. Terry and I had talked about the need to return to church to fulfill our spiritual need. Bev invited me to a weeklong tent revival and during this time I rededicated my life to Christ. Terry had been raised EUB and we decided to join College Avenue Methodist Church. For me, I always knew God was there, but I had not been practicing my faith.
By the late 90’s it was necessary to retire due to my eyesight and Terry was transferred to Indianapolis. We joined St. Luke’s United Methodist and have been active members for the last 20 years. In December 2020 we lost our 48-year-old son Tim to Multiple Myeloma Cancer and once again my faith became a cornerstone to lean on. It also brought me back to reading my Daily Devotionals.
Terry retired in 2018 and 18 months ago we moved back to the area to be closer to family and friends. Cherish is married to Brad Hensley and she helps him pastor Van Buren Methodist Church. Chris is a pilot in the US Navy and currently has 34 years of service. Our son PJ is the baseball coach at Yorktown High School and our youngest Gabe is a commercial airline captain who flys internationally. We have 24 grandchildren and another one on the way. We are enjoying our attendance at Yorktown Methodist and especially being back around old friends.
