Another Special Life in Christ

These testimony lives are not stories of "role models". Jesus is the role model!
These are lives wonderfully touched & changed by Jesus!

Granny has been granted a miracle:

My mother-in-law's whole life is a wonderful Christian testimony...she was a servant who gave & gave & gave willingly, gladly, and happily. I had known her for nearly 20 years & had many "family history" discussions with her. It had always amazed me that I'd never heard her "want" or ask for anything except that she hoped she'd never "be put in a rest home". But today, I'll focus on the miracle we proclaimed on 10 August 2002.

At age 85 and after a lifetime of hard work and being a big help to everyone, kin and friend alike, Lallah Lindler Drafts suffered a stroke (on 26 October 2001) which knocked out her left side. About a week before, she had a growth removed from her right female area which turned out to be cancer. But, during the next 5-6 months, our thoughts and actions and prayers were toward managing a terrible degree of Granny sleeplessness (1 hour per 24 if we were lucky)...and coordinating and performing care...and dealing with her hallucinations. We could only manage to keep her in her own home about a week; then we moved her into our detached apartment.

At about the end of March 2002, she had some sort of seizure and intense headache and ended up in the ER and being admitted to the hospital. The cancer had come back where it started and also spread to her right groin area. Non-radical surgery was performed...she was in no shape for radical vulvectomy (the standard cancer treatment for the past 30 years). As she recovered and showed signs of having significant lifetime ahead, we were faced with what to do about a special variant of squamous cell carcinoma (cancer) which tends to come back in the same general area over and over (does not tend to go to lung, liver, and brain and kill you those ways).

My personal friend for about 1996 is the senior radiation oncologist at Lexington Medical Center, John Ravita, M. D. "Ervin, if you don't do radiation therapy, the cancer will keep coming back and be cut out over and over until there is not enough good tissue left to close up. But, radiation to the vulva [external female genital area] is always bad because it is always so painful. That's why it has been only rarely done over the last 30 years." In fact, I recalled the words of the most admirable Paul Underwood, M. D., then at MUSC where he saved my ex-mother-in-law in 1970 with radical female cancer surgery: "Any radiation therapist who radiates the vulva should be castrated!!"

Granny's mother had some sort of pelvic (endometrial?) cancer which eroded through her lower back (sacrum) and became a foul smelling mess. She was in old Columbia Hospital (1955-56) for about a month before the infection in the cancer finally took her out. Granny remembers being one of only a few people who could stand the stink enough to stay in the hospital room and be with her mother before she died.

Granny's case was presented at our hospital's biweekly oncology conference in the hope that there might be another way. "Granny and her family are farm folk who aren't afraid of death. They are way more interested in quality of life while still on this earth," I told the conferees. After brief discussion, there was unanimous agreement that radiation was the only chance to accomplish that goal.

I, my wife, Betty and Granny's nurse daughter, Trudy Seybt, and Granny met that afternoon with Dr. Ravita. We were amazed at Granny: all of the confusion and "talking crazy" was gone and her mind was razor sharp. She followed all of the doctor's explanation, including about the several weeks of dead-certain, awful radiation-induced pain. Granny said, "what you say about my cancer sounds like the way my momma died, and I'll try anything to keep from dying like she did." Dr. Ravita again warned, "Mrs. Drafts, you do understand that there will absolutely certainly be a lot of pain?" "I can take pain for a few weeks," Granny softly but unwaveringly responded (her words and courage caused a big lump to swell in my throat). So the dates were set.

We sent out and called for prayer requests at our churches and among family believers. Betty and I prayed specifically for a miracle of mercy from pain that would be so impressive that we would not be able to credit anyone but the Lord. And if the miracle did come, we promised to proclaim it as such to any who asked. So, on Sunday 10 August 2002, we proclaimed a miracle of mercy to our Sunday School class. That day was one day of treatment shy of 5 full weeks of treatments. Granny had been almost pain free in spite of the fact that her female area looked very painful. As a bonus, she has been blessed with all-night sleepfulness the whole time! What a miracle we've personally witnessed!! Thank you, Lord! See other faith & health information [here].

Update: It is Christmas 2002, and by God's amazing grace, Granny is still barely with us. What has impressed me most are the many divine graces we have seen solely because Granny is here in her totally needy condition and has drawn family & neighbors to her regularly:

•  just before her stroke, one of our "children couples" tumbled onto the brink of an almost awful incident & absolutely certain divorce. As prayers, Christian counseling, and mine & Betty's love worked on the situation, Granny stroked about 9 weeks later. That brought a gigantic "pull" together of family. That entire little family of 5 totally changed their lives (mom & dad & oldest child baptized) & are devoted believers...the mom now being our most dependable sitter for Granny.
   
• after 31 years of marriage, being in an "empty nest" situation, in an intense nursing job, and having the pressure of being the key family decision maker, our sister & her husband separated. All who know them are praying for reconciliation. He almost went crazy with claustrophobia living in their little beach camper as they went to Christian counseling. She has lived with us except when kids are home for Christmas holidays (then he changed places). Had we not gotten so close taking care of Granny, I'm not at all sure that we would have "naturally" thought to pray & cope as we have.
   
• The detached apartment is a duplex, and a lady minister coming onto our church staff moved in Set. 1st 2001. Her godly counsel and addition to our family as a new sister has added a great positive influence on the whole situation. God placed her here at just the right time!
   
• in the summer of 2002 our minister's-wife sister has had a chance to witness to one (or more) of the sitters who is a neighbor & I am working on a relationship toward that end with her fiancée...none of which would have been possible without Granny's situation.
   
• In and amongst all of the problems of dealing with medical visits and bills, buying of supplies, keeping sitter coverage 24/7/365, etc., it has been an incredible testimony to see a family of 4 sisters & 1 brother and their spouses, kin, & friends deal with Granny & her situation with love and a minimum of interpersonal strain. I would have never guessed that a family was capable of such loving cooperation: a huge testimony to the family example they were raised in by Granny and their Daddy. This has turned out to be a "light" that I have been able to proclaim to many who have sincerely asked, "Ervin, how is the family holding up?" At the annual Drafts family Christmas Eve gathering, just as it seemed that a happy gathering was about "done", our son Fred, out of the blue, hushed everyone and made a testimonial comment that "broke loose" many more stories about being raised by Lallah & George Bell Drafts. What a wonderful stream of comments for about 3 generations in attendance to hear! Though still alive only by "the skin of her teeth", the "pull" of Granny's sweet life lead to the best Christmas Eve gathering ever. God has truly blessed us so very much. (Granny died 21 January 2003 [memorial ]). As of 2006, the separated sister divorced and remarried a Christian man in another state & moved to his home & later the moved into the old home place; and, amongst squabbling over the division of Granny's estate...the land...the brother was separated from the family, being the only "negative' & that situation has nicely resolved to the positive] See other faith & health information [here].

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(posted 10 August 2002; updated 18 November 2006)

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