A Life Well-Lived
There's a saying that you should “enjoy the little things in life, for one day you'll look back and realize they were the big things.” This is certainly true for Rod H., whose granddaughter, Rachel Chappell, is Rockwall City Lifestyle’s new publisher. At 79 years old, after a lifetime filled with love, hard work, unexpected turns, challenges, and blessings, Rod has learned that some of the moments that seemed ordinary at the time have become the ones he’s most thankful for.
At this point in his life, Rod has plenty to look back on and plenty to be grateful for, including 20 grandchildren, fifty-six years of marriage to a wife he still loves to hold hands with, and a rewarding, if unexpected, career as a pastor turned rancher. But what strikes you when you listen to him isn't just the richness of the life he's lived. It's the gratitude with which he talks about it.
The Groundwork for Gratitude
Originally from the Gulf Coast of Texas near Houston, Rod attended high school at La Porte High School before he joined the Navy at age 17. The year was 1965, and the war with Vietnam was heating up. Yet Rod volunteered to go. “I’m very patriotic. I wanted to go serve our country,” he says. Several years into his military service obligation, Rod was sent to Vietnam. For 13 months, he worked 12-hour shifts in Da Nang, Vietnam, on a Navy Cargo Handling Battalion, a mobile combat stevedoring unit organized to load and off-load vital military supplies, equipment, and ammunition from ships and aircraft in combat zones. Yet even in the midst of war, Rod discovered things worth being thankful for.
“I’ve never been bitter,” he says. “I’m grateful I had the opportunity to serve. And even though it was hard work, I had it good. I’d see the guys coming out of the jungle and I was grateful for the job I had.”He also found Christ while serving in the Navy, a decision that would shape the course of the rest of his life in more ways than one.
A few days before Rod’s twenty-first birthday, his tour of duty ended and he returned home. He began taking classes a San Jacinto Junior College where, one day, he saw a pretty girl near the campus fountain with a huge smile on her face. He approached her and asked, “What are you so happy about?” She replied, “I’m always happy.”
Her name was Linda, and Rod asked her out on a date on the spot. “I wanted to date someone who was happy like that,” he remembers. She insisted he meet her father first, which he did, and the two began dating and attending church together. A year and a half later, he proposed to her via a note passed in church. They were married on September 20, 1970, and to this day, she’s still known to everyone as “the one with the big smile.”
Finding His Purpose
After college, Rod worked for the post office for a year and then joined the Houston Police Department. But after five years of seeing tragedy and death, Rod wanted to have a greater impact and surrendered himself to full-time ministry. “I was thinking about eternity, not just the day-to-day,” he says. He told his pastor about his intentions, and before long, he was leading the congregation at First Baptist Church Riesel. For the next 50 years, he pastored five different churches until his retirement in August of 2025.
Rod didn’t intend to retire when he did, but an unexpected health diagnosis changed the course of his plans—and, in many ways, deepened his appreciation for the life he had been given. In 2024, during an ER visit for a UTI, a CT scan showed something on his lung. It turned out to be lung cancer, a result of his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam.
“It was a shock,” he says. “I was the guy who sat in the hospital with other people, and now, suddenly, I was the guy in the bed.” Throughout it all—three rounds of chemo and the removal of 18% of his right lung—Rod found reasons to be thankful. “I cannot express my gratefulness for every doctor, nurse, and staff member,” he says. “Even though it was the lowest I’ve ever been, we saw the Lord’s hand at every turn.” Rod has been cancer free for two years now, but he still sees every day as precious, and he’s thankful for each one. “You realize that the little things that annoy you aren’t that important.”
At the top of Rod’s list of things he’s grateful for is the family he and Linda have built together. Several years after they were married, Rod and Linda had their first child, Julie, followed by two boys, Rod Edwin and Bryan. Today, their family has grown to encompass a whopping 20 grandchildren, including twin girls born in March. Perhaps best of all, the family remains close. In 2014, Linda and Rod moved to Marquez, Texas, where they live on a small ranch on 76 acres and care for a plethora of animals, including 18-20 head of cattle, horses, goats, miniature donkeys, and numerous dogs and cats. One son has built his own home on the property, and the other lives close by, allowing Rod and Linda to spend time regularly with their two sons and 13 of their 18 grandchildren.
“I have so much to be thankful for,” Rod says.
Rod’s wife, Linda, concurs. “You have no inclination of how your life will go, but I can’t think of happier or more blessed life.”
Rod has learned that some of the moments that seemed ordinary at the time have become the ones he’s most thankful for.