Answering the Call

By Marge Warmbrodt

This is a story of recollections of the impetus in the lives of two ordinary people that transpired after they heard the call of a donkey. The events and relationships that followed could only have been designed by God that would result in our meeting a young woman whose short life would provide the defining moment of the organization known in Elko County Nevada as Friends for Life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781479773053

Marge Warmbrodt

FOLLOWING THE CALL Marge Warmbrodt is the only founding member currently serving on the Board of Friends for Life. She is the President of Friends for Life and for the past 12 years has served as CEO. Marge has devoted the past 25 years of her life to the mission of an organization that “provides financial and other assistance to Elko County residents who are suffering significant hardships as a result of serious medical conditions.” Marge authored a previous book ,“Answering the Call”, which journals memories of some moments of her life that led up to the impetus of Friends for Life.

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 by Marge Warmbrodt.

Library of Congress Control Number:               2012924353

ISBN:               Hardcover               978-1-4797-7304-6

               Softcover               978-1-4797-7303-9

Ebook               978-1-4797-7305-3

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Contents

Where To Begin

The Auction

Obsession To Depression

Adoption To Addiction

The Quest

Get Ready

Get Ready For A Mighty Move

Continuing Traditions

Donkeyland

Unplanned Retirement

A Purpose For Life In Ruby Valley

Get Ready For A Mighty Move Of God

Unfolding Blessings

Another Move Of God

Changing Plans

Defining Moment

This story recalling memories of loving burros and Burroughs

is dedicated to my husband Bruce and friend Carolyn Burroughs.

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WHERE TO BEGIN

Where to begin this story brings back memories that seem to bring back so many others and all the woven stories in between makes the starting point the most difficult challenge I will have in writing this story. I can even distinctly remember having been to Christian Motorcyclists Association’s rally when the theme for that year was Preparing for a Mighty Move of God. As I look back over the past years, these words were to be prophetic of my life.

We were just coming home from a motorcycle trip, my husband and I, when out of the blue, Bruce made the comment, I don’t know why, but I want a donkey. Little did I know, but that statement was going to define the rest of our life together.

Bruce had been raised at a mining community in an isolated desert in the northern part of Nevada known as Goldacres. Perched at an altitude of 5,600 feet on the east side of Shoshone Range with a view overlooking the wide flatness of Crescent Valley toward the Cortez Mountains was Mount Tenabo rising to a 9,153-foot peak.

Goldacres was owned and operated by the London Extension Mining Company from Colorado. The name originated when Bruce’s grandfather took a contract in 1905 to extend a development tunnel in the South London Mine at Alma, Colorado. He organized a corporation of family and friends to finance the work.

Representatives of the company came to Nevada in 1933 and negotiated the purchase of equity in sixteen claims. About 1939, clear title to the property was obtained and ownership passed to Consolidated Goldacres Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the London Extension Mining Company. Development of the mine commenced in 1940.

Bruce was about six or seven years old when his family moved to Goldacres from Colorado.

I do not remember how donkeys came into his life, but I do remember the stories that he told of them as pets when he was growing up at the mine. Evidently, those were precious times in his life, and they soon would become a part of his life once again.

Not many days later, a man with a gravelly voice and smoking a big cigar came into our store and introduced himself as Tex. He was holding a few flyers and was asking permission to hang one in our window. My husband immediately recognized Tex as someone he had met many years earlier when he was driving trucks and hauled some mining equipment to him. Bruce soon called me to come and look at the flyer. It was advertising an auction at Tex’s property in Ruby Valley and among the many pictures of the items to be auctioned was a picture of donkeys. Needless to say, the rest of the day was consumed with all sorts of donkey tales ending with an invitation to visit his home in Ruby Valley the next weekend.

The weekend came quickly and immediately upon arriving in Ruby Valley. I could plainly see the love that emanated from my husband when he was introduced to each of the twenty eight donkeys. Early on in our marriage, I had learned that pets had played a very important part in his life as he had been raised as an only child, so animals seemed to fill the void of having no brother or sister in his life.

Tex owned two hundred acres in Ruby Valley and lived in a home that had once served as a schoolhouse in the valley. We were invited into a living room and kitchen. In the back were two small rooms and a bathroom. We were greeted by a hole on the carpet in front of the door and a huge king-sized metal potbellied stove that served to heat the house.

The hole in the carpet was dug in that spot by his favorite burro, which he fondly called Olamon. Olamon’s mother had died at birth and Tex had raised him in the house, driven him around in his Cadillac, and treated him like his favorite child ever since then. Olamon was not going to be in the auction because of this special relationship for Tex. What fun we had that day with Olamon, who proved to be a quite a character.

Little did we know at that time, it was to be the beginning of God’s plan for our retirement.

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Motorcycle Days

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CMA

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Bruce and Marge

THE AUCTION

There was a large attendance at the auction in Ruby Valley on that beautiful day. The auction began and our son-in-law started bidding on the donkeys. We were very disappointed every time he was outbid on our favorites. Bidding was quite interesting on all the other items that were auctioned in between each of the donkeys. Those in attendance got caught up in the