articlesforchristians

The Life Story of My Dad

When my dad was born on March 16, 1944, in Louisville, Mississippi, his father, Harold, was 27 and his mother, Kathleen, was 20. In 1944, Louisville, Mississippi, USA was a small town with a population of around 3,000 people. The town was predominantly rural, with agriculture being the main industry. The town had limited access to modern amenities, with most households lacking indoor plumbing and electricity. My dad already had one brother, James who was about 3 years older.

When he was 3 months old, his mother went to work in the fields. She left him by the side of the road on a blanket. The road ran beside the field. Later that afternoon, he was found still on the blanket by his grandmother. It had been hot that day and he was dehydrated and badly sunburnt. His grandmother picked him up and went to find her daughter. She then explained that she was taking both my dad and his brother, James, home with her. So, my dad grew up living with his grandparents. His grandfather, Mr. Hartness, was a preacher.

Later his mom and dad had three more children.

My dad lived with them, his grandparents, until they both passed away. Mr. Hartness passed in 1954 with his wife following in 1959. At this time my dad was only 15 years old. The child welfare office sent someone to pick my dad up from his grandparents’ house soon after his grandmother passed. He hid. He hid out for about 1 year. He went every day to his friend’s house to get a plate of food. At the end of that week, he had gotten in touch with his uncles in Georgia. Up until this time, he had made money to live on by running boot leg for his uncles who lived close by in Louisville, MS. After getting in touch with his uncles who lived in Georgia, he went to live with them until he turned 18. There they taught him to drive an eighteen-wheeler, work on cars, trucks, and other equipment, smoke, and drink.

In 1962, my dad’s father passed away.

After coming back from Georgia, he got a job building bridges. He fell off of the Lumberton Bridge on Hwy 55 while working and broke his back. He was put in the St. Dominic’s Hospital in Jackson, MS. His draft notice for the Vietnam War came while he was in the hospital. His mother brought it to him. My dad asked the doctor what to do. The doctor simple said, “give me the notice and I will fill out the necessary forms to explain that you are not going anywhere with that bad back”.

A couple of years later he got married to Diane in 1965, when he was 20 years old. They had three boys. In September of 1982, they filed for divorce. They were divorced on January 19, 1983, after 18 years of marriage. My dad was 38 years old. The boys mostly stay with their mother.

My dad married Karen, my mom, in Jackson, Mississippi, on January 28, 1983, when he was 38 years old and she was 21 years old.

They had an interesting marriage. There were some good times and there were some bad times. They had me about two years later. After I was born, my dad had a hard time finding a job. His back still gave him problems, and he had very little education. My mom was trying to teach him to read. With little hope to of finding a better job, he took a job as a long-haul truck driver. This job was the beginning of the end of their marriage. It was long after taking this job that he decided that it would be better from my mom and me if he divorced her. The local people in the town where we lived looked down on truck drivers. They even said that it was not possible for a truck driver to be saved. (This is not true. Truck Driving is not a sin.) My parents were divorced in September 1989, in Ellisville, Mississippi, after 6 years of marriage. My dad was 45 years old.

In Oct of 1989, my dad was in a bad accident. A car ran under the flatbed trailer he was hauling. This broke his neck. With nowhere else to go, he came home and slept on the couch. He kept me while my mom went to work at the hospital.

In Dec 1989 there was an ice storm. Everything froze. We had horses. While trying to get water for the horses, my mom fell down. She hit her head. There was blood pouring for the gash in her head. Worse yet her back was broken. My dad blew the engine in the car getting her to the hospital. Because, we did not have health insurance, they waited too long to do the surgery on my mom’s back. She was in the hospital till April of the next year.

Things are bad. My dad can’t work because of his neck and me. My mom can’t work because she is in the hospital. My dad thinks that he can’t pray to God, so he tells my mom to pray. Somehow, we get the money needed every month.

In April of 1990, my mom comes home from the hospital. My dad is released to go back to work. He starts back paying child support of $175. That is helpful, but not enough to pay the bills. My mom can’t walk. Her left leg is paralyzed, because the doctors waited too long to do the surgery. It takes her another year to get on her disability.

My dad continues driving, but now he refuses to haul anything but the box containers. In takes about a year for the insurance to pay him his compensation for the accident. When he gets the money, he buys some land in Ovett, MS. He tells my mom that the land will be mine because she let him move back in when he broke his neck.

One night my mom wakes up. She has a bad feeling about my dad. She thinks that he is in trouble, so she starts praying. A little while later he calls. He almost had another accident. The straps broke that was holding the load. The load shifted. He was going down a mountain. According to him, an angel came and kept the truck from falling down the mountain. He wanted to know two things. 1. Where is Janie, the angel looked like her with her hair. 2. Were you praying? The answers were 1. I, Janie, was in my bed asleep. 2. Yes, I was praying. He said thank you.

My dad still misses his grandfather. He sometimes says that if he could only hear his grandfather preach just 1 more time.

My dad loses his son, William Ambers in July of 2000, William is only 27 years old.

In 2002 he marries Shelly. They have 1 child together. They divorce in 2009.

His mother Kathleen passes away in December of 2014, in Jackson, Mississippi, at the age of 91.

He starts asking questions about the Bible. I try to answer the questions. The main question that he keeps asking I am not able to answer. So, start on a quest to find the answer.

Jan. 2019 my dad calls me from the emergency room. Within the week we find out that he has stage 4 lung cancer. He must give up truck driving. He now starts going to church. He asks me to get him some Bibles because he wants to hand them out. I order 10 Bibles. He gives all of the Bibles away. The Sunday before he passes, he asks the preacher, of the church that he has been going to, to come and pray with him. He gives his heart to Jesus. He passed away in May of 2019, in Ovett, Mississippi, when he was 75 years old.

I am thankful that I will see him again in heaven. I still miss him so much.