Art & Joan

McInnis

NLNC STORIES

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

There’s something captivatingly wonderful about walking into one particular Chesaning home. The antiques and other décor are beautiful; the rooms are cozy and inviting. Candles offer their soft glow and gentle scents.

But it’s something more.

“My parents moved me my senior year from Berkley to Royal Oak High School and I was not happy,” Joanie said. Art picked up the story: “I was walking to my next class one day when who did I see? Her!” A short time later, he asked her for her senior picture (Art was a junior) and he was thrilled to receive not just a picture, but also to see she’d “written a nice note on the back. That was the spark!” he said, grinning. After both had attended different colleges for a couple years, Art gathered the courage to ask Joanie on a date, after sending a friend to ask her if she would be willing to go. She said yes, and, “We’ve been together ever since,” Art said, smiling at her. Two years of dating culminated in their marriage. Several years later daughter Heidi was born; next came daughter Traci.

“There is no doubt the whole success of our marriage is through faith in God,” said Art. Joanie added, “We both deeply love God, we share devotional time with Him, we’ve always believed he was there. We’ve been believers all our lives.”

Business

In 1970 Art and a business partner, who both were drawn to move north, settled their families in Chesaning and bought the Chesaning Argus, forerunner of what is now the Tri-County Citizen. Nine years later, Art bought his partner’s half and ran the newspaper alone for five more years.

“We changed the name of the paper to the Chesaning-Montrose Argus. We were doing so much advertising from Montrose, we added their name to the masthead,” Art said.

In time, ill health took its toll on Art. However, ongoing back pain plus the necessity of having his first of three separate triple bypass surgeries didn’t slow him down, because “one month after my surgery I was working 80 hours a week!” Realizing this grueling schedule wasn’t healthy, Art decided, in 1982, to “fold and find some other work.”

Being his own boss for so long, Art knew he wouldn’t care to work for someone else, so God opened a new door for him. A renewed connection with a candy salesman who had advertised in Art’s newspaper was on the other side of that door. The salesman wanted someone to publish fliers to promote his candy. This one order for fliers resulted in a 20-year career, not just for Art, but also for Joanie, Heidi and Traci.

“We ran the business out of our barn right here!” Art exclaimed, pointing toward a small building in their yard. “Both girls gave up their jobs to help.” (Heidi married Dale Hersch and their children are Nikki and Zach; Traci married John Morence and their children are Cassie, Cameron and Caleb).

Along with a growing business, the McInnis family watched and learned as technology changed the business world. Said Art, “We started with the old-style printing,” and “I would cut and paste the pictures and words,” continued Joanie. Their daughters became technologically savvy, so Art sent them to buy $20,000 worth of new up-to-date equipment, allowing them to “advance from individual typesetters to the computer age,” Art chuckled. This equipment cut their production time in half, which was a huge benefit because now their business accounts stretched across the country. The bulk of their accounts were small mom-and-pop candy businesses along side streets in New York—the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and New York City.

A Crisis Hits

NOVEMBER 2000

Business moved along smoothly until the fall of 2000, when Art decided to take a break and go hunting. His equipment was in the garage, ready for an early start the next morning, the day after taking his granddaughter to a Michigan State University football game. While enjoying the game, sitting among thousands of other fans, Art felt certain he’d heard a voice over the loudspeaker ask Art McInnis to come to the office to take a phone call. “I didn’t believe they really said my name, so I ignored it,” he said.

But he had heard correctly, a fact he learned after he got home.

Dropping off his granddaughter at her home, Art was surprised to find his wife there, with suitcases. Her first words to Art were, “You are not going hunting.”

A leaking propane tank sitting with his other hunting equipment had sparked an explosion when the gas reached the water heater, starting a fire which destroyed their garage and filled their home with smoke. Joanie, alerted by a strange sound and smell coming from the garage, had escaped with her two cats just in time to hear the explosion—from a distance. “God got me and my cats out. If it had happened at night…” Joanie said, her voice trailing off with the “what-if” thought unspoken.

Did this deter their thriving printing business?

It sure didn’t.

“I still ran the business even though I had to make many decisions on the house to be rebuilt and we lived in an apartment in town,” Art recalled.

One year later, tragedy struck again.

Their business would not survive.

“We lost about 80% of our business.”

This tiny business in Chesaning was suddenly devastated when terrorists destroyed the Twin Towers in New York on September 1, 2001.

How did this horrific attack in New York so personally affect this little printing business almost a thousand miles away?

The little, thriving candy businesses in New York, which had depended on the fliers printed by the McInnis family to promote their wares, were destroyed as the famous towers crumbled.

“We lost about 80 percent of our business,” Art said, his ever-present smile fading. Struggles to keep the business alive failed, resulting in lost funds with which to pay their bills.

Yet God empowered Art to say upon this reflection, “But we had 25 years of a convenient work life!” They settled into retirement, enjoying their grandchildren and attending New Lothrop Nazarene Church.

In 2016, their daughter Traci passed away.

Two years ago, the most intensely tragic time of their life occurred, and still makes their voices quaver and brings tears to their eyes: the death of their daughter Traci two years ago, when she was only 48. Traci had been ill for some time; however, it shocked their entire family when a blood clot caused her sudden death.

They shared that they cling to the hope that they will see her again in heaven. “I know we’ll see her again. I know she’s with the Lord because she accepted Him as her savior,” Joanie said. Even though Joanie admits she feels losing Traci is not fair, she and Art agree that they have never doubted God and humbly agree that God took her at the time He determined was right.

Art with his daughter, Traci

The two McInnis sisters: Heidi and Traci

“I know we’ll see her again. I know she’s with the Lord because she accepted Him as her savior,” Joan said.

Tearing up, Joanie said, “I have a husband with such deep faith, he always tells me, ‘It will work out.’” But listening to Joanie, it is indisputable that she, too, has strong faith. One example is that she led one of her granddaughters to accept the Lord as Savior. Joanie claims her favorite Bible verse to be “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight” (New International Version Proverbs 3:5-6).

Art was hard pressed to say which verse is his favorite, because, “You look at my Bible; every page has all kinds of verses underlined!” But he does offer advice to both young and old: “Be consistent in your walk and talk.”

We might also heed his and Joanie’s conviction: “It’s our responsibility to be in His house every Sunday as long as we are physically able.” So while Art, who has had three heart bypass surgeries and uses a cane while he heals from spine surgery, and although Joanie suffers from chronic back pain, too, we can be sure to see them walk through the NLNC doors for worship every Sunday—smiling.

“It’s our responsibility to be in His house every Sunday as long as we are physically able.”

On the back of his high school senior photo in 1960, Art wrote these words to Joan

Joan,

To the sweetest and most sincere girl that I can say I know.

Your really a wonderful girl Joan and I have always admired you a great deal and I imagine I always will.

I only wish that maybe someday you could feel the same toward me

I sure hope to continue our friendship throughout the years.

May you get the best that this world can offer a terrific girl like you.

Love, Art