Here is a continuation of the tale of Verner Mae & her family, continued from … A Beginning (click here to read Part 1)
…a tale of faith expanding proportions
Verner Mae did eventually locate her mother who had abandoned her at age 13 years. But let me set the prospective for this rosetta stone of my mother’s adult life odyssey.
I can remember one thing constant on Sunday morning was waking up to the voice of our mom praying & petitioning to God to let her locate her mother. She had not seen or heard from her mom since she was a teenager & none of the network of family members seemed to know where her mentally ill mother was. And yet, our mother always spoke of her mother as being alive although she had no proof….until this prospective changed.
Mom was in her early 50’s when in 1969 she received a lead that her mother was a resident in the State of Alabama’s mental illness institution called Searcy Hospital located in Mt Vernon, AL. This lead did result in communication & visitations & ended with Ms Clara Barker coming home to live with her only child & adult daughter & family.
My grandmother suffered from psychosis & lived in a world all to herself. Her conversations with us family members were a matter of necessity only & not long tolerated. She however kept constant verbal & social interaction with an array of individuals of adult and infant stature, who were vivid in her isolated & individual world. I believe my younger sibs were fearful & certainly confused by her behavior. I however did find her intriguing & welcomed our exchange no matter how fragmented.
My mother noted a possible mass in grandmom’s breast & we took her back to the facility as instructed for an evaluation. While we were there awaiting the intake process to be completed, grandmom took ill, suffered acute respiratory failure & arrested there in our arms and expired rapidly. I was 17 years old & the sheer sense of overwhelming helplessness I believe set the stage for my transition into medicine.
Now many years later, I think, in hind sight, of how things worked out related to the way God answered my mother’s prayer to allow her to find her mother. How our grandmother passed away less than 1 year after she was located. How I just happened to be with my mother to support her on this shocking event.
I am strengthened daily on my journey as I recall that my mother prayed for all her children & sought God’s blessing to blanket our lives. Because I believe that God heard my mom’s prayers, I seem to understand with improved mental clarity how we are blessed beyond expectations & to find calm with less a struggle when the challenge of the unknown seems to loom heavily on the horizon.
So I truly have had my faith strengthened by this life circumstance acted out in the life of my family………
We are reminded in the poem Invictus (unconquerable) penned by the British poet William Earnest Henley:
It matters not how strait the gateHow charged with punishment the scroll,I am the master of my fate,I am the captain of my soul.
~ Post by Vernon Scott, Sr
Wow…I never knew this. Thanks for sharing.