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By the dark of the moon I
planted
But there came an early snow
There's been a hoot-owl howling by my window now
For six nights in a row
She's coming for me, I know
And on Wildfire we're both gonna go
We'll be riding Wildfire
On Wildfire we're gonna ride
Gonna leave sodbustin' behind
Get these hard times right on out of our minds
Riding Wildfire
I was searching, always
searching for something to better Rhonda’s condition. There was in my
deepest desire to see a way to see something, anything that would make her
more comfortable. There was a short article about Dr. Cooper in New York
City who was doing wonderful things with the disabled. My family, the
whole family, was as devastated by what was happening to Rhonda. When I
asked Mother to pay for a trip to New York City for a visit to this doctor
she readily agreed. It was only a trip to investigate and all that would
be involved was the air fare. After calling the spiritual leaders of my
faith in New York for a family who might wish to put us up for several
days they gave me the name of the most loving family in the Bronx area I
think I have ever met.
“Are you sure this is where
you want to go?” The taxi driver was an efficient self appointed tour
guide as he pointed out points of interest, Shay stadium and such.
“We will be going into the
Bronx.” Rodney told him. “We have a good family there who will put us up
while we visit St. Barnabas Hospital, nearby.
“Well, okay then. For sure,
this is the Bronx.”
Our benefactor was waiting
at the top of what was an old Brownstone apartment house steps. The lady
was smiling and friendly as she helped us into her home. Truthfully, I
don’t know how we managed all those steps with Rhonda but, somehow, we
did. They were letting us have the basement apartment, her family lived in
the middle apartments and the top apartment was rented out. These folks
place looked like a little jewel in the midst of what was the most pitiful
of living conditions. Everywhere, in 1975, this looked like a war zone.
There were burned out buildings, fire sirens running all the time and
gangs sleeping on the curbs at night. Hell’s Angels had nothing on the
street people as they boldly made their Molotov cocktails on the sidewalks
in the early morning hours.
St. Barnabas hospital was a
Mecca of a stronghold atop a cliff in the midst of all this. There was
only the one car entrance where a guard maintained an eternal watch,
twenty-four hours a day.
We were disappointed in the
work the doctor was doing. If we had been in the same league as some of
the well heeled people who were visiting, maybe, but as they told us,
there is no surgery that is without risk and if nothing else the chance of
bleeding and blood loss was there.
We felt this was no
solution, this implanting of electrodes. We did gain experience and to see
strong people living in the midst of chaos and squaller gave us hope for
the belief in a new way of living that could be accomplished even if it
certainly was on a small scale at this time. |
