A Merry Heart

Donna Frakes was born June 6, 1944 in Pasadena, California and lived and grew up there with two sisters and a brother.  She later met and married her husband and two children, John at 21 and Dori at 23.

After the birth of her second child, she went to the doctor for her six week check-up, and he told her that he had discovered she had cancer and that suggested she go to the hospital immediately.  After much thought and prayer, she decided against going to the hospital.  She believed that God would heal her.  In January of the next year, she had a hysterectomy and five days later the doctor said the cancer was totally gone; it was a miracle.  They lived there until 1975, and then decided to move to Oregon to raise their children.

“When I was 27, I realized I was losing my eyesight.  After a number of tests and treatments, I learned that the treatment I was given was giving me cataracts, and now I learned I needed to have cataract surgery.  But the cataract surgery caused another problem.  In time I developed glaucoma.  A blood vessel had burst in my left eye, and now I was also blind in that eye.  I also learned from a report that the neurologist had not informed me about, was that I had Multiple Sclerosis.  He had been reluctant to tell me about it, not wishing to upset me.

But after waking up one day and feeling numb from the waist down, I went to the doctor and he definitely confirmed that I did have MS and suggested I should go to UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California for extensive tests.  In 1975, I was definitely diagnosed with MS (Multiple Sclerosis) a debilitating disease.  I did a lot of praying at that time and felt that God was with me. “I like the verse in II Timothy l:7 that states, ‘For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and a sound mind.”   I just kept going with God’s strength.  I had to raise my children alone as my marriage had dissolved, but I resolved myself to keep going.”

During the years she’s had to live with MS, she has worked in various banks in the Rogue Valley, including eleven years in Rogue River.  Donna says that while she was working at a bank in Central Point one day, a gentleman came into the bank to open an account.  She said there was something magnetic about him.  “I was drawn to him, and started to get flustered because I had difficulty concentrating and forgot to get his license number.  I called him later for the number, and while on the phone he asked me for a date.  I accepted, and that date grew into a relationship.  I learned Lee had been a marine for twenty-six years, had lived all over the United States, and was now settling in the Rogue Valley.  The relationship we had grew, and we found ourselves in love.  In September 1992, we were married.

Lee was very fond of anything related to the Renaissance period, so we decided to have a Renaissance wedding.  We had a pastor friend play the part of Merlin the magi-cian to marry us, with a dragon ring bearer and a castle cake.  There were about 200 people who attended the wedding which was held on our 150 acre estate.  We both loved the movie Camelot, so we decided to call our homestead “Tori Camelot”.  Our home is even decorated in a Camelot theme.  Lee is always very busy working on our property and raises trees for timber and sells his lumber for firewood.

By the following year, we started holding Renaissance Parties at our home each September, and invited all of our friends to attend.  There were all kinds of food, beverages, and entertainment with music, games, armor fighting, archery, and Renaissance dancing.  Those that attended spoke about the wonderful event for a long time afterwards.  We have also taken part in the Rogue River Rooster Crow Parade every year in June in full costume, with displays of sword fighting by knights.  Everyone has enjoyed seeing us in the parade each year, and we will continue to participate.”

One day on February 29, as Donna was working as a teller at the Valley of the Rogue Bank in Rogue River, Donna’s husband Lee commemorated the anniversary of their engagement on Leap Year Day four years earlier with a visit to the bank in full medieval attire.  Lee and Donna have been actively involved in the Medieval Arts Association since they were married.  Actually following the Leap Year Tradition, Donna asked Lee to marry her on Leap Year Day in 1992.

Donna had to quit her job at the bank, as her MS steadily increased over the years, and she knows that it is also difficult seeing as she is blind in her left eye.  She never complains and says, “It was the Lord’s strength that brought her through the years.”

She states that the person who influenced her most in her life was her father.  “He was a wonderful Christian man and a great role model.  My mother also a Christian, had a beautiful voice and would constantly quote the verse in Proverbs 17:22 which states; “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.”  Donna has made that the motto of her life, as it has sustained her through all kinds of trials, but she still is a beautiful woman with a beautiful smile.  Everyone who knows Donna can’t help but admire and love her, and I thank her for her moving story.

“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine...”

Helen L. Price