Faces

To encourage young couples to stay married, 74-year-old Bishop Nathaniel Linsey and his wife Mae, 71, turned their 50th wedding anniversary into a vow renewal ceremony for 100 couples. At an Indianapolis church conference for the Christian Methodist Episcopal denomination, the couple renewed their vows before 800 people. During the April 5 ceremony, church leaders presented elderly couples with honorary 50-year marriage certificates provided by Alliance for Marriage, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization. Known as the "pillow lady," 77-year-old Marie Banister provided home-cooked meals, hand-sewn pillows, and personal prayer for cancer patients at the Houston-based M.D. Anderson Cancer Center for over 30 years until her own heart trouble left her homebound. Now she oversees 40 volunteers who annually distribute 4,000 pillows. And at her urging, local churches recently founded the Compassionate Touch fund, which annually assists more than 850 families of cancer patients with short-term housing, transportation, and meals.