CHAPTER FOUR - "Songs In The Night"
(Illustration by Mark D. Sawhook)
I realized as I shared the previous chapter concerning bumps in the road, that this was an experience about MY own physical problems and God’s victory through them. But, there is another side to those bumps. These include our children and their pains and struggles and ‘bumps.’
I feel that I need to give you the point of view of a parent whose child is going through horrible times in their lives and the grace and strength the Lord can give.
I also said that I would not share some things as they are either very personal or hurtful to our children or ourselves, but I can still give you lots of guidelines and encouragement through some of these experiences.
This particular setting takes place in 1986. My father, Michael Oczypok, had prostate cancer and had been in remission for seven years. The summer before, around the time of their 50th anniversary celebration, he learned that ‘it’ (the cancer) had returned. He then spent the last ten months of his life in the Veteran’s Hospital in Butler. On May 16, 1986 we received the call that Dad was gone. We then made arrangements to go home for the funeral and help my Mother through this difficult time. A friend from church had volunteered to watch five-year-old Becky and thirteen-month-old Danny for us so we wouldn’t have to find sitters for them or have to take them to the funeral home.
We borrowed a friend’s car from church with a luggage rack on top to make the nearly six hour trip home, along with our five older children. We had planned to return home the day of the funeral after the traditional ‘wake’ and after dinner was served.
On our trip home, we were only about two hours out of Butler when the transmission in the car went out. It was almost comical because Tom had to drive backwards down the ‘on’ ramp. That was the only direction it would go. The boys in the back seat wrote a “HELP US” note to any passerby who could see it. They probably thought the children were kidnapped.
After Tom got the car off any main road, we happened to be near a motel (not unlike the one in “Psycho”). He found a pay phone and proceeded to call Cincinnati to the man whose car we borrowed to let him know our dilemma. He said he would call AAA to pick up and tow away the car and that he and another man from church would come and rescue this motley crew.
It was going to be at least a three hour drive to pick us up and three hours to get back home again. We settled in on the porch of the motel with our huge ‘turtle’ luggage carrier waiting for the owner to return. He apparently had gone fishing for the day.
In the meantime, Tom decided to call the folks who were keeping our little ones to let them know about the delay. As I stood in front of him calling from the pay phone, his face told me that something was wrong. My first thought was about someone in church. “Did someone die?” “Was someone hurt or in the hospital?”
As he hung up the receiver, he took me by my shoulders and looked me in the eye as he said, “There’s been an accident. Danny was burned and is in Children’s Hospital.”
My heart felt as though it had dropped to my stomach and I choked back the tears. “What do you mean? What could happen to our precious baby? Was it a car accident? What could it be?”
He then proceeded to tell me that Danny had pulled a large coffee pot down on himself and that he had 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree burns. I stood and stared in unbelief and shock. I had to get to my baby.
We told the children and everyone was crying and sad. We had nowhere to go. We had to wait for our rides back home. The hotel owner graciously allowed us to stay inside a room until they came. Fortunately, it was an awful room and gave us many laughs as we waited. The Lord is good to give us laughter and silly times.
(To read the end of the chapter, you'll just have to buy the book. :)
