Was it fate or divine intervention that brought Harry and Myrtle Mushegan together 70 years ago? The Mableton couple say it was both, aided in large part by powerful prayers.
On Dec. 31, the Mushegans and their large extended family will mark that milestone wedding anniversary. Of all the memories the two share, the one that stands out as the most remarkable is the way they met in Birmingham, Ala.
In September 1942, the then 25-year-old Harry Mushegan, a young preacher from Los Angeles, was attending a Church of God convention where 18-year-old Myrtle Paulk’s father was a prominent leader. For some time Mushegan had been praying for a companion, and within moments of seeing Myrtle walk toward him, he was smitten.
“She was in a sleek, red dress with black fringes, and she looked great,” recalled Mushegan. “I remember going back to my hotel and praying for the confidence to ask her out.”
Later that day, Mushegan mustered his courage and asked Myrtle to go for a walk in a nearby park. Once there, he asked bluntly if she had any desire to be part of the ministry.
“I wanted to meet someone who would enhance my ministry,” he said. “I didn’t want to wind up divorced like a lot of people. But she said she was interested, so then we went for a meal in a Chinese restaurant.”
Myrtle Mushegan said she knew the challenges of being a preacher’s spouse and was willing to take them on.
“My father was a preacher, and I wanted to marry one,” she said. “I knew what I was getting into. Harry fit right into the plan.”
At the end of that first date, Mushegan popped the question. Myrtle already knew her answer; in fact, she’d decided a few days before that Mushegan was the man she’d marry.
“My father had shown me a picture of this man from California who was the youngest bishop in the Church of God,” Myrtle remembers. “I thought he was the best looking guy I had ever seen. I went to that convention to look for him, and my friends thought I was crazy. But I remember sitting in the church in Birmingham, and when he walked onto the stage, that was the moment I knew I was going to marry him. I think I knew it the moment I saw his face.”
Mushegan recalls being a bit surprised by Myrtle’s immediate acceptance to his proposal. “But at the same time, I was thrilled. We set a date for a year out.”
But waiting that long proved too difficult for the determined couple, so they decided to marry over the holidays. They picked the minutes before midnight, just as 1942 was about to roll into 1943, to be married in a Church of God in Tennessee, where Myrtle's family lived. For a short while, they returned to Mushegan's church in California, but within a few years they were back in the South. In the 1960s, they started their own church in Atlanta and moved it to Cobb County in 1984. Today, their nondenominational East West Church of God on Hurt Road in Marietta has about 3,000 members.
At 94, Mushegan limits his ministry to teaching Bible classes on Wednesdays and lets his three children oversee the day-to-day work of the church. The family, including seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, live near each other in Mableton.
Being married for 70 years isn’t hard, the couple agree, when you have a match made in heaven.
“I love him so much,” said Myrtle, 88. “He is a good man.”
“And I love my wife,” chimed in Mushegan. “She was an answer to my prayers.”
“Milestones” covers significant events and times in the lives of metro Atlantans. Big or small, well-known or not — tell us of a Milestone we should write about. Send information to hm_cauley@yahoo.com; call 404-514-6162; or mail to Milestones, c/o Holly Steel, 223 Perimeter Center Parkway N.E., Atlanta, GA 30346.
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