As the firstborn of five children, with Glen the youngest, he was always my “baby brother”. Grief Specialists tell us that a helpful part of the grieving process is going back in time, reliving those special times together, taking a leisurely stroll through the Garden of Memories. So “strolling” in that Garden is what I have been doing this past week!

During World War II Daddy had a job working in the ship yards in Beaumont, making ships for the military war effort. Both June and Glen were born while we lived there. Mother’s first four children were born in the home, but she had difficulties birthing June. Therefore the doctor had her go to the hospital when Glen was born – her ONLY baby delivered in the hospital.

We moved to Tahoka when Glen was only one, and we lived in an old farm house that first year. Daddy was a good mechanic, and worked hard at it. But it was a limited income for a family of seven. Mother kept the big box of powdered laundry detergent under the kitchen sink. One day little Glen pulled the box out and spilled it, for which Mother began giving him a spanking. I rescued my baby brother from her, exclaiming, “Mother! This is GLEN!!” (I was ten years old then, and in my mind she could spank the other siblings, but not GLEN!) Mother explained that he had done the same thing a time or two before, and that the detergent was too expensive to waste!

I think Glen was still only one year old when Dr. Prohl in Tahoka discovered the problems with his heart. So his heart was monitored closely throughout his childhood, waiting for an operation that would help him. But open heart surgery was VERY new and risky and packed with uncertainties in those years, thus beginning a time of “waiting”. The surgery was not done until 1961, the month before his 14th birthday. Some had wished the surgery could have been done earlier, before those difficult teenage years. At that point, for a teenager, “take care of your heart”, “thou shalt not smoke”, and “thou shalt not drink” were just rules to be challenged.

(That same year when Glen was only one year old) -- Little Glen had beautiful red hair (some would call “strawberry blonde”) with lots of curls, and Mother did NOT want to cut off those pretty curls. In those days men did not ever let their hair grow out. But one day when Mother and we girls had gone grocery shopping, Daddy had the boys at the old farm house. While we were gone our Aunt Rogers came for a visit, and she cut Glen’s hair! Poor Daddy, for letting her do that. Mother was so disappointed (to put it mildly)!

When my first husband and I were married in 1959, for our honeymoon trip the plan was to use his parents’ car because it was newer and much nicer. Glen was 12 years of age, and of course that kid wanted to be involved in all the excitement of the day. So young Glen decided that he would decorate the getaway vehicle . . . you know: messages like “just married”, etc. The problem was that Glen used REAL PAINT !!! A quick trip through a car wash was not very effective . . . Yikes!

One Christmas Charlene decided to pull a prank on Glen. A box of broken glass was carefully and beautifully wrapped as a gift to him. But when Charlene was handing the gift to him, she purposefully dropped the gift on the floor, resulting in the sound of shattering glass. Oops! Glen was “very disappointed”,exclaiming, “Well, just throw all of my gifts over in the corner, Charlene!” Those knowing the joke got a good laugh. But he was to get his “revenge” a few years later when he wrapped a gift for her, proclaiming it to be Tunnel of Fudge Cake. When opened the gift contained a generous serving of cow manure!

Following Tahoka High School graduation, I think Glen flunked most if not all his freshman classes at Texas Tech in Lubbock. Then he decided to join the Navy. We thought, “Glen has jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire!!” And it wasn’t great at first. When I lived in Sweetwater for my first year of teaching (1967-68), I was surprised to receive a telephone call one night. He was in the brig; he had jumped overboard! Who would have guessed that in the Navy his life would be completely changed! That is where Glen would meet Allan Brown, who led Glen to his walk with Jesus Christ! Praise God!