Rory's Grandpa...

I just got the best email from my mother in law. She wrote that she was asked to write a funny story about Papa (her dad, our grandpa) to be shared at Family Night at the Care Home where he lives. She wrote out the following and it is all true.

Dad used to like to "ride the rails" or "jump trains" when he was young. He was around 18 yrs. old and very poor at the time. It was just after the depression. If his father could send him $1.00 of spending money for a semester of school that was all he would get. He was attending Bible College, but there was no money for traveling back and forth from home. He solved that problem by traveling on trains for free. He was in college in Springfield, Mo., and home was Cleveland, Ohio.

One time when it was Christmas, the highlight of the year for a Swedish family. He jumped a train, climbed on top and lashed himself onto the boxcar with his belt so he wouldn't fall off when he fell asleep overnight. He arrived safely home, but another man on top of that same boxcar froze to death during the night.

Another time he jumped into a darkened boxcar where he couldn't see into the back corner of that car. After the train started a man came at him from the dark. He was prepared to fight. He had a sock with a bar of soap in the toe of it which he swung at the other man and protected himself.

A third time he jumped into an open doored boxcar at a station. The workers came through the lot and closed all of the train's doors. He found himself locked in a refrigerated car. He says someone working the lot must have seen him go into that car and before the train pulled out he opened the door just a bit otherwise Dad would have frozen to death!!

We KNOW that the Lord had His hand on this man and kept him safe (from himself) many times. I wish you could hear him tell these stories!!