The Greatest of These Is Love
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At age 18, Gena (Goode) Bradford '85, MAT '91 was shocked to learn that her father was marrying a woman he had met in Germany and wanted Gena to move out. She recalls him saying, "I'll help you with your education, but you need to leave."
Six years earlier, in 1959, a great sadness had entered Gena's life when her parents divorced. Both parents were alcoholics, and her mother also struggled with mental illness. Gena chose to live with her father in Northern California, where she had become involved with Young Life after accepting Christ as her savior at a Billy Graham Crusade.
Now, having just finished a semester at Chabot Junior College while living with her father, Gena needed to find a new home and college. She also began grappling with crushing depression and despair.
As Gena struggled to figure out her next steps, Jack Bradford '67, M.Ed. '76 was heading into his fifth year at Whitworth. A psychology major and theology minor, he did well in the classes he enjoyed but struggled in classes that didn't click with him. Jack had been voted class clown and liked to shoot pool. Studying – both getting around to it and doing it effectively – proved challenging and contributed to extending his college career from four to five years.
That extra year would prove crucial to the course of his life.
Gena remembered the cherished childhood friend she had met when her father was stationed in the Army in Munich, Germany. Hedwig now lived in Hawaii. "I thought I would go see her and start summer school at the University of Hawaii," Gena says. After arriving at her dorm, Gena called Hedwig, excited to reunite with her friend. But Hedwig, who was married and had a child, acted distant and didn't offer to meet. "We seemed like strangers," Gena says.
Fortunately, she had formed an instant bond with her roommate, Carlotta. "God sent me the most wonderful roommate in the world," Gena says. At the end of the summer, though, Carlotta returned home to Vancouver, B.C. Gena knew she could not stay in Hawaii – her loneliness and bouts of depression were too great. An airline strike prevented her from returning to the mainland; the only flights available were to Canada. Gena flew to Vancouver to join Carlotta and her family, and she spent an idyllic week at their summer home on Puget Sound.
That's where Gena encountered a college-age volunteer crew preparing to embark for the Malibu Club Young Life camp. As a high schooler, Gena had longed to attend this camp. Now, she had nothing to lose: "Could I go with you?" she asked a crew member, who motioned to Abby Richardson, who led the volunteers. Abby was also on staff for Young Life at Whitworth.
You see where this is leading.
Abby sized up Gena and took her on as a camp counselor. Throughout the voyage and the week at Malibu, Abby ministered to Gena's aching heart. She also told Gena that she would heal and grow at Whitworth through its caring Christian community. "That's your next step," Abby said. "I have no money," Gena thought. "I don't know how that's going to happen."
At the end of camp, Gena once more didn't know where to go or what to do. Her only resort was to work up her nerve and call her dad in California. "My dad had compassion on me and said, ‘Well, come home.'"
Within a week of returning home, Abby called from Whitworth. "School starts tomorrow and there's one bed left," she said. "You're supposed to be here. Promise me that before you say no, you'll pray about it."
Gena prayed then and there, sitting on her bedroom floor. "Lord, you know it usually takes me a long time to figure out your will. We don't have long. School starts tomorrow. Do you want me to go to Whitworth?"
Gena remembers a sweet presence of God blanketing her. "The very air felt like honey pouring over me," she says. "I knew without a shadow of doubt."
Gena told her dad what had just happened. He gave her a car, his Army sleeping bag, a map and money for gas. Gena threw everything she owned in a suitcase, called for her transcripts to be sent to Whitworth, and hit the road early the next morning. She drove 890 miles, pausing to nap at a rest stop.
At Whitworth, Gena found the registrar in McEachran Hall and shared her story of God miraculously bringing her to Whitworth. Then she answered "No" to the registrar's questions:
"Have you been accepted and registered for classes?"
"Do we have your transcripts?"
"Do you have money for tuition?"
The registrar ushered Gena upstairs to a financial aid officer, and Gena shared her story again. The officer said he'd find Gena a job on campus, and he asked two seniors in Calvin Hall if they would share their spare bed with Gena. She enrolled in classes, began working for the campus switchboard, and slept in her dad's sleeping bag for three months until her roommates surprised her with new bedding.
Gena was indeed supposed to be at Whitworth.
A Spokane native, Jack had been raised in the church and came from a family of pastors. "To be a person of worth," he recalls feeling during college, "I needed to become a pastor."
One Saturday evening that fall, Gena returned to campus after teaching a class at the YMCA. She was late for dinner and hadn't changed out of her dance clothes, not wanting to miss out on steak night.
Jack worked for dining services to pay for college. He was grilling steaks when he noticed a beautiful young woman wearing a black leotard and white blouse with a strawberry pattern. (He'll never forget what she wore.) The two exchanged hellos. Another day, when Gena came through the line at lunchtime, Jack asked if she'd like a cup of coffee. "We sat down at a table and started talking," he says. "The next thing we knew, it was dinnertime.
"Gena was the first significant person in my life who I learned to communicate with," Jack says. "I deflected a lot with humor, and she was really good at drawing me out."
Through their early conversations, Gena knew they had something special. "We could be completely honest and transparent with each other," she says, "and not fear judgment or rejection." Jack shared about growing up in a Christian home and struggling to find a faith of his own. Gena shared about her painful family history and struggles with depression and insecurity.
Like generations of Whitworth students, Jack and Gena were profoundly influenced by members of the Whitworth community. For Jack, it was Professor Emerita of Psychology Pat MacDonald and Professor of Philosophy Larry Yates. "Pat was a really strong, loving, caring, nurturing person who set expectations and kind of dragged me along [to meet them]," he says. Yates taught Jack to think well and ask deep questions about topics that troubled him.
Gena found healing through her daily job at the campus switchboard. Her supervisor, Penny Siria, taught Gena how to pray when she was in deep despair. "I had only known how to pray when I felt acceptable to God," Gena says. Through prayers of thanksgiving and praise, Gena began to notice the beauty around her and her depression began to lift.
Dean of Women Lillian Whitehouse Lyle became another "spiritual mom" for Gena. "She was available when I needed to talk about my family, losses and fears," Gena says. "She loved me unconditionally and believed in me even when I didn't believe in myself."
Toward the end of that transformational year, with Jack on the cusp of graduating and moving to Texas to attend seminary, he asked Gena to marry him. "It was a really tough decision," Gena says. "I had finally found a home [at Whitworth]. But I married Jack and off we went to Texas."
Two quarters shy of graduating from seminary, Jack dropped out. "I realized I didn't have anything to offer the church," he says. "I didn't have the experience of a personal relationship with God through Christ at that time."
The couple moved to Gena's hometown in California, where their first child was born. On weekends they canvassed the city, seeking a faith home that resonated with Jack. "All the while I was praying for him because I had been born again at 16," Gena says.
One Saturday afternoon, they saw a building with a large cross up on a hill. They attended church there the next day. For the first time, Jack heard the message of salvation in a way that resonated with him. "It connected a bunch of dots for me, and in a very short time I made a confession of faith to the one who had been pursuing me the whole time, even at Whitworth though I didn't know it."
In the early 1970s, Jack and Gena moved back to Spokane, and Jack applied to earn a master's in education at Whitworth. "I'm sure they were falling out of their seats," he laughs, given his academic struggles as an undergrad. But while he was in seminary, Gena had taught Jack how to study. Whitworth admitted Jack provisionally – if he passed two classes, he would be formally admitted to the program. Jack earned two A's.
Jack earned his M.Ed. at Whitworth as well as his master's in counseling from Pacific Lutheran University and began a career with the State of Washington. During the 22 years prior to retiring, he worked as a therapist for felony sex offenders. He points to his former Whitworth professors, especially Pat MacDonald and Larry Yates, as being instrumental in his choice to pursue this work. "They gave me a sense to do something that brings glory to God and that meets the needs of people," he says.
Gena returned to Whitworth in 1981, at age 36, to complete her undergraduate degree. At the time, she was running an in-home day care for 15 children as well as caring for her four children. Friends pitched in so she could take classes, and Whitworth provided scholarships to help cover tuition.
As an English major, Gena learned how to write nonfiction for publication from Associate Professor Emerita of English Linda Hunt, and she would go on to become a published author. After earning her B.A. degree, Gena continued her education and graduated from Whitworth with a master of arts in teaching in 1991. She taught at local elementary schools, and she worked for Whitworth's School of Education as an adjunct professor and a supervisor for student teachers. "Whitworth was where I was nurtured," she says, "where my gifts flourished, where people spoke into my life."
In retirement, Gena continued to write and publish her work, including a devotional and guided meditation – I Can't Rest Now, Lord! I'm Responsible – for individuals struggling with burnout. She became a public speaker and led local workshops, having experienced burnout's debilitating symptoms in her early 50s after decades of serving and pleasing others to gain acceptance and self-worth.
When Jack proposed to Gena at Whitworth in 1967, she initially told him "No." Along with her reluctance to leave her beloved campus community, she had a lot of growing up to do. She was 20 years old, and he was 23. "Let's grow up together," Jack said. They did indeed grow up together as their marriage hit rough patches, each learning to own their failures and flaws, each learning to forgive the other.
"A key to our marriage was our willingness to get counseling when we needed it, to be teachable, and to keep Jesus at the center of our lives," Gena says. Across 57 years, the couple has persevered through deeply difficult seasons, including early unemployment, ill health, caring for two children with physical-health issues and one child with mental-health issues, and the loss of a child. The couple is open with others about the struggles they've weathered. "We find that our transparency helps others be transparent," Jack says.
Ever since Jack and Gena first sat down for coffee and conversation in Whitworth's dining hall, they have grown in their love for each other and their faith in God's care and provision.
"What we share today is priceless," Gena says. "Love truly can last."
This story appears in the Whitworth Today fall 2024 supplement.