Our world changed in August 2024.
A neighbor called to say, “Your wife is lying on the pavement.” When I got there, Bertha was on the ground surrounded by several neighbors. She was dazed and bleeding from the head. Someone had called 911, and the emergency people arrived in a couple of minutes.
Bertha spent five days at St. Dominic’s for a concussion. As a result, she lost all short-term memory.
Bertha had always been a beautiful and amazing woman. She had been Miss Forest Hill High School as a teen, and with degrees from Bob Jones University (one of her classmates was Dr. John MacArthur himself) and Rhode Island College, she became a teacher. Over the years she taught American literature in high schools and colleges wherever she and her family lived — Boston, Birmingham, Melbourne, Fla.
In churches where her husband pastored, she was the most effective greeter! She loved teaching Bible studies for women and was her husband’s biggest prayer warrior. At home, she crocheted afghans for everyone she knew. She loved to read, spent an hour with her Bible every morning (sitting on the carpet at the foot of our bed with her open Bible, a notebook, and her beloved doggie), and got a great kick out of cooking pastries for the neighbors.
After the accident
After her accident, all of that stopped. It stopped immediately.
We had to sell her car. We reluctantly told a few friends what we were dealing with, mostly out of necessity. Her Sunday School class — as lovely a group of senior ladies as you will ever meet — needed to know so they could pray for her.
Doctors began running tests to see exactly what had happened and to determine how to help her. They’re still at it.
As her husband, I had much to learn.
Full story.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Joe McKeever and originally published by the Baptist Record.
