Our Miracle(s)

Our Miracles

In April of 1962 I was discharged from active military service. My wife, our two children and I returned to California and resumed civilian life. Over the next few years I worked in finance, sales and construction.

In late 1962 our second son Paul, our third child, was born. When he was only a couple of months old he was hospitalized with severe asthma. He was placed in Critical Care and we were very worried. He was so ill he wasn’t taking any nourishment. We prayed, our friends and our church prayed and the Lord responded.

One night while he was in the hospital we found an elderly black lady singing and rocking him. We were surprised because she had him out of the oxygen tent but he seemed to be O.K. – in fact he seemed to be totally relaxed and comfortable with her. She was able to get him to take a bottle though no one else had been able to. We thought she was one of the nurses. A little later, she was gone and we mentioned the incident to one of the other nurses because we wanted to thank her. The nurse we spoke to seemed surprised and told us she was the only nurse caring for him. We asked if the other lady might be a volunteer. She told us that there were no volunteers working at that time and that there was no nurse or volunteer fitting that description. Although we tried, even going to the supervisors, we never were able to find out who the lady was but Paul quickly recovered. My wife and I believe she was an angel. Paul is now 50 years old and has never had another asthma attack.

Our eldest son, Vernon, also developed asthma necessitating frequent trips to the hospital emergency room. Although we cannot point to a specific time of healing he is now 55 years old and has not been bothered by asthma for many years. He enjoys generally good health and travels frequently training network administrators for an international company.

When in his teens Paul was in a car wreck. He had gone to the lake with his cousins. Their car overturned and rolled several times crushing the top. Paul was trapped inside. It was dark and in the confusion and with the top crushed he could not find a way out. He felt someone grab him under his arms and pull him from the vehicle. He thought it was one of his cousins but they all denied any knowledge of it yet there was no one else around at the time.

Years later Paul was thrown from his motorcycle when he struck a hole in the pavement. It was dark and he did not see it in time to avoid it. He injured his spleen and received serious head injuries that put him in a coma for days. The first person to arrive on the scene was an off duty paramedic who reported the accident and immediately began emergency care.

I was on a business trip when I received the information and rushed home, praying all the way. The medical staff could only tell us that his condition was critical and we would have to wait and see. They had removed his spleen but their real concern was the head trauma. When he came out of the coma after several days he was very confused. It took a while but he recovered completely. He is now active in his church and a manager at the company he works for.

Debra, our daughter, was blessed having never had any problems with asthma. Like her brothers she was also blessed with intelligence and has a good job in administration at a hospital.

Our fourth child, Randall, was born in 1964. He had serious asthma as a child and gave us numerous sleepless nights and nervous trips to the hospital. Our prayers for his healing seemed to go unanswered. It is not always possible to comprehend why the Lord appears to respond quickly and positively to one prayer, while seemed not to hear another. To us it may seem like indifference or even punishment – but we need to remember that God always has a plan for our good. We don’t understand His plan but if we keep the faith we will ultimately reap its benefit.

Randall is an adult now and although he still has occasional bouts of asthma they are rare and mild in comparison. He graduated from City College with honors after making the Dean’s List every semester and now has a good job in state government.