Marlene Gaskill was 66 years old when she finally found something that seemed to elude her for decades: unconditional love.
As a child she was secretly adopted, which she found out at age 14. She was reunited with her birth mother in her early 20s, but that didn't last. A second try later in life, however, was successful. She had been married twice and had lost her second husband -- her childhood sweetheart -- to a crack cocaine-induced heart attack. Mrs. Gaskill knew pain, and it would take a little bit more before she'd find what she was really looking for.
After a 1998 car accident, Mrs. Gaskill had become addicted to painkillers. She was already addicted to cocaine. In 2001, she got a postcard about alternative music at Perimeter Church and decided to go the following Sunday.
“I wasn’t going to church at the time because I couldn’t sit through a service without doing drugs,” she told an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter in a December 2003 article, just after her 69th birthday. “So I’d tell him [God] that I was sorry I couldn’t come in his house, but I was in the front yard and I needed his help.”
Mrs. Gaskill got the help she asked for and found a love she’d only dreamed about. She spent the rest of her life trying to tell others about the love of God through Jesus Christ, her friends said. She eventually joined Perimeter Church, beat her drug addictions and became a community activist.
“When you know there's someone in your life who loves you no matter what, it's unbelievable. It really is,” she said in the 2003 article. “I still remember hearing Romans 8 for the first time: Nothing can separate you from the love of God. I just went, ‘Hello, this is what I've been looking for all my life.’ ”
Mrs. Gaskill wanted to use her past as a means to help others, said Jean Harrivel, a friend and the membership director at Perimeter Church.
“She was passing it forward and saying there is hope, no matter how old you are,” Ms. Harrivel said.
Marlene Gaskill, of Johns Creek, died Oct. 18 from complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She was 76. Her body was cremated and a memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m., Tuesday in the chapel of Perimeter Church. Byars Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
In 2003, two years after her private moment in the parking lot of Perimeter Church, Mrs. Gaskill was thrust onto the public scene as she rallied against illegal massage parlors where she once lived in Gwinnett County.
A year earlier Mrs. Gaskill stumbled upon a new business in her neighborhood that turned out to be an illegal massage parlor. She spent the better part of two years crusading against the establishments and working to get laws changed. By 2004, as a result of Mrs. Gaskill’s efforts, 20 or so massage parlors closed or were shut down.
Bert Nasuti, a former Gwinnett County commissioner, remembers Mrs. Gaskill’s relentless fight against anything illegal in her neighborhood.
“It wasn’t just the massage parlors,” he said. “She was a wonderful citizen to have because she wanted to be part of a solution to correct any illegal activity.”
But Mrs. Gaskill’s real claim to fame was her ability to win souls for the Lord, Ms. Harrivel said.
“She wanted people to know there is hope, and you can experience the love of God, regardless of your age,” she said.
Mrs. Gaskill is survived by her daughter, Paula Jo Gaskill of Helen; a half sister, Joanna Hathcock of Dallas, Ga.; and a half brother, Michael Hunter of Highlands, N.C.
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