I CAN HANDLE ANY CRISIS— I’M A MOTHER: AND THEN STEVE MARCHED OFF TO VIETNAM

May 11, 2011

While Bill was mending, the Vietnam War shifted into high gear and our second son, Steve, who was seventeen at the time and a senior in high school, got restless. Many of his buddies had already joined the Marines, and he wanted to follow them. He disliked studying and school was a pain to him. With reluctance, I signed the papers that allowed him to enter the U.S. Marines just a few months before his eighteenth birthday. Steve was a Christian, and that was my comfort as he went off to training. When he enlisted, we thought the Vietnam thing was winding down, but by the time he finished basic training, it was full-blown, and he told us he would be shipped to Vietnam in March 1968.I remember driving alone with Steve to Camp Pendleton the day he left. It was St. Patrick’s Day, and we stopped for lunch at a place that was all decorated for the holiday. Normally, I would have enjoyed all the frivolity, but I was quiet and without much laughter.We were early in arriving, so we had time to drive up a steep road that leads to a fabulous church in San Clemente, near Camp Pendleton. It has a spectacular view of the ocean, and although it was a dismal day with low clouds and fog, I have some indelible memories of our standing there by the church, looking out at the thrashing ocean below the cliffs. We prayed together there by the church, and then we slowly made the final lap of our trip to the Marine base.In my mind, I have a memory video of Steve swinging his green Marine duffel bag over his shoulder . . . turning and waving . . . and then disappearing beyond the chain link gates of Camp Pendleton.His frequent letters from Vietnam reflected the spiritual growth that had surfaced in his life. When you are a Christian and your buddies are dropping all around you in battle, all you have left is your faith in God.Although he was killed on July 28, 1968, it was not until three days later that a car marked “U.S. Marines” drove up to our home. Two young Marines in full dress uniforms came to the door to tell us that Steve and his entire platoon had been wiped out in a battle near Da Nang.When a loved one is in a dangerous situation, as Steve was, you live with constant apprehension and fear, but somehow, when it finally happens, it is like a “lifting”—that something is over. Indeed, life was over for Steve.About ten days later, a call came from a mortuary near us, and a man’s voice said, “Mrs. Johnson, you’ll have to come up here and identify Steven’s body because whenever a person dies in a foreign country, the law says that the body has to be identified.”Because Bill wasn’t even driving a car yet, I decided he should be spared this gruesome situation, and I went by myself to the mortuary on a 100-degree-plus day in August.I was ushered into a viewing room by a little man dressed in a dark suit, who stood waiting as I looked into the hermetically sealed box and tried to determine if the brown bloated face before me belonged to my son. He had lain facedown in a rice paddy for two days before being found. All they showed was the top half—I couldn’t even be sure there was anything left of him below the belt. The little man kept standing there, and finally I decided that it must be Steve. I signed the little paper that said, in effect, “This boy belongs to this box.”As I walked out of that mortuary, I thought, By now we’ve surely had the cup of suffering. Bill is back to normal—well, almost. He still watches old. John Wayne movies over and over and doesn’t think he has seen them before, and he forgets birthdays and anniversaries … but I guess lots of men do that . . . and now we’ve lost this beautiful son who is our deposit in heaven.Steven’s memorial service included the congregation singing “Safe in the Arms of Jesus,” which was the song our church sang when he left to go to Vietnam. We had a little brochure printed with Steve’s picture on the front, the message from his memorial service inside, and the plan of salvation on the back. And we began to share with other families who had lost sons in Vietnam. It was possible to obtain names from The Los Angeles Times, which printed a list each day of young men killed in action in Vietnam. We sent Steve’s brochure to these families, feeling it was an opportunity to share our conviction that, as Christians, we have an endless hope because we know Jesus Christ.Tim Called from the Yukon—CollectThe next five years went by quickly. The war in Vietnam finally ended, and we began to have closure in our healing from the loss of Steven.Tim, our oldest son, was twenty-three. He had finished college and then graduated from the Los Angeles Police Academy in June 1973. He and his friend, Ron, had decided to take an extended vacation, so they drove to Alaska, where they planned to stay a few weeks, make a little money doing some temporary summer work, and then return home in early August to get ready to carry out their fall schedules.I must tell you that, although Tim was a handsome and darling young man, he wasn’t what I would call a lot of fun. That he worked during college at Rose Hills Mortuary tells you an awful lot. His idea of fun—and this was the epitome of fun for Tim—was to bring home the bows from mortuary bouquets and decorate our two dogs and cat with them. These bows had messages like, “May he rest in peace,” or “God bless Grandpa Hiram.” Whenever I came home and found the family pets all decked out in funeral ribbons, I knew Tim was “having fun” again.After Tim arrived in Alaska, he wrote about his new friends and also mentioned that he had been baptized. This sort of hurt my feelings because he had already been baptized in our church, and I thought we had good water there, but I sensed some new spiritual dimensions in Tim’s letters, unlike the boy we had known at home.On August 1, 1973, I got a collect call from Tim. Now, I have always enjoyed having a new month. I change the sheets, take a bath, have my hair done, and we do something special to have FUN on the first of every new month. Of course, I do this at other times, too, but I always make the first a special celebration.Tim’s first question was, “What are you doing, Mom, to celebrate the first of the month today?”My quick response was, “Well, I was just HOPING for a collect call from you.”Tim went on to say, “Ron and I are on the way home. We should be there in about five days, and I can’t wait to tell you what the Lord has done in my life. I’ve got a sparkle in my eye and a spring in my step, and I know the Lord is going to use my story all over.”I couldn’t help but notice that Tim had an air of excitement in his voice; it was different from the conservative, well-modulated tone which was so familiar to me—one which seldom had shown much enthusiasm about anything. How exciting to think he would be home in five days to share with us all what had happened to change a quiet, sedate young man of twenty-three into an exciting, turned-on Christian.Tim’s call came around noon, and after we hung up, I started thinking of all of my efforts to get him entrenched in Christian activities. Once I had even bribed him with a new set of tires to get him to go to a Campus Crusade conference. But no matter what we did, Tim never took notes or seemed to act interested. He would just go with the flow, but would never get turned-on or excited . . . until NOW!That night at dinner I was telling Bill and the other two boys, Larry and Barney, about Tim’s phone call a few hours earlier. We were all laughing and enjoying what Tim had said, when the telephone rang. It was an officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police calling from White Horse, Yukon. It was hard to hear everything he was saying, but as the words came over the static-filled line, they came out like this: DRUNK BOYS IN A THREE-TON TRUCK . . . CROSSED THE CENTER LINE … HIT TIM’S LITTLE VOLKSWAGEN HEAD ON . . . TIM AND HIS FRIEND, RON, WERE KILLED . . . INSTRUCTIONS NEEDED FROM YOU AS TO HOW YOU WANT BURIAL PLANS MADE.Tim and Ron had been immediately ushered into the presence of God! Stunned, I thought, But this can’t BE! I was just talking to him a few hours ago, and he was on the way home to share his story with us. He was to be home in five days! This can’t be! I already have ONE deposit in heaven. I don’t need TWO! Tim is our firstborn, a special gift. It just isn’t FAIR!I lashed out at how this could happen to us . . . again! Hadn’t we had enough? How could God let this happen when Tim was so thrilled about coming home to tell us of his exciting spiritual experience?A few hours later, we got a call from the pastor of the church in Alaska where Tim had been attending during the summer. He said, “We’re not going to let those boys’ story die in the Yukon. We want to bring some folks down to share what really happened in their lives.”I thanked him and told him I would let him know the date of Tim’s memorial service. Grief-stricken as I was, his offer to share with us was comforting. Later at the memorial service he told what had changed this dull, conservative boy into a sparkling, shining personality so turned-on to spiritual things. Tim had rededicated his life to the Lord and his friend Ron had become a Christian.Our local newspaper published the story about the accident, including pictures with the heading: “TWO BOYS KILLED BY DRUNK DRIVER ON THE ALASKA HIGHWAY.” The very next day some darling young girls dropped by to tell us how shocked they were to read of the accident. They brought along letters Tim had written to them, which they had just received. Evidently, the day before he had started for home, Tim had written to several girls he used to go with, as well as some other friends, and told them of his spiritual experience. His letter to one girl said, “Please forgive me for being such a creep. . . .” Any mother would wonder what that meant. Apparently, Tim wasn’t as boring as I thought he was.*10\316\2*

WORMS IN HUMAN BODY

May 1, 2011

Worms may be present in the bowels without causing much in the way of serious symptoms. However, some worms do cause severe symptoms and must be eliminated from the body. Among them are the hookworm (ancylostoma); the pin-worm (enterobius vermicularies); the roundworm (or ascaris); the whipworm (trichuris trichurea); the tapeworm, known under such names as the beef tapeworm, the broad tapeworm, the fish tapeworm and the pork tapeworm.By far the most common is the pinworm, also called the seat worm or thread worm. The eggs taken into the human body hatch in the small intestines, where the worms mature and mate. Females move on to the large bowel and develop the eggs. The males pass out of the body. The eggs may lodge in areas around the openings of the bowel, may get on the sleeping garments or bedclothes. They cause itching and scratching which may result in infection. In the control of pinworms, the utmost cleanliness is required. Several drugs are available which will quickly eliminate such worms, among them hexyl-resorcinol and other substances.The roundworms, exceeded in frequency only by the pinworms, live in the bowel and may develop to lengths of 6 to 15 inches. They hold themselves in the bowel by a sort of spring-like pressure. The female worm can discharge 200,000 eggs a day. This worm does not cause much in the way of serious symptoms, but can produce blocking of the bowel. They are controlled by giving cathartics and washing out the bowel, after which drugs are provided that destroy the worm and eliminate it.The hookworm can produce severe anemia. It penetrates the skin, producing the condition called ground itch. It then gets into the intestines by way of the blood. The doctor establishes the presence of the condition by examining the material from the bowel. Such remedies as hexylresorcinol, oil of chenopodium and tetrachlorethylene are used. All worm remedies are poisonous if administered wrongly or in excess amounts.The tapeworms live in the human intestine. There are thirty or forty different species. A complete tapeworm will measure one to fifteen feet long and contain as many as 2000 parts. The presence of these worms means serious loss of appetite, secondary anemia, loss of weight, and other serious symptoms.*39/318/5*

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