No Higher Love

By Bradford Carter Matthews

After the great War Roscoe Owen, who was orphaned at 11 joined the Army at seventeen. He married Sara and they had one girl, then a SIDS boy, Jimmy, born Christmas and died Easter. Their second son, Billy was a very sickly child developing pneumonia at two. Sulfer and liquid iron were the only medicines of the day which had adverse effects on teeth and the body. Billy overcame his childhood asthma to become an incredible athlete, an All America football player. When he was sixteen he met and fell in love with Katie. As the lovers approached college, her mother Jessie told them they must part. It ripped Billy apart. He loved her afar for fifty years. They would meet at times, see each other at times and remember at times but it was never a convenient time. Both were great Christians, and the Word preceded everything. At the end, Katie is a widow and available again. Billy too is available. What is the Higher love, to God, or each other, read and find out what happened to one love in the rural south to what became to middle class couple.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491857663

Bradford Carter Matthews

Author Bradford C. Matthews is “a man for all seasons,” as it is said. He grew up in a blue collar Southern home. After college, his industrial promotions elevated him to positions in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Boston and Denver, each location away from his homeland. He is grateful and loyal. Brad is world traveled as an adult based on his commitment to life plans with his children. He is a Historian of most things North Carolina. His ancestors came to Jamestown in 1621, and the fourth generation came south. His Christianity sprang from his early family life right after the Great War, in which his dad served. His education and era is greatly influenced by the World War. He loves the Lord, and this is his third book since retiring as a History teacher in 2009.

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Bradford Carter Matthews

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© 2014 Bradford Carter Matthews. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 01/24/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-5767-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-5766-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014901537

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Setting the Stage

Main Character Emerges

Billy’s Growth Helped

The Christian Church Introduces Christ

Richard Owen, a New April Brother

The Magical Seventh Grade

God’s talent to Billy: Football

Sister Brawl, She Was 16

For No Other Love, Always and Forever

Billy skips the JV, Moves to Varsity Football

Love Does Exist at 16

You’re going Where on Your Own at Age 16?

Stomach and End Runs

The College Example and More

Old Gold and Black

Work Itself: Like Men with Ten Talents in the Bible

A Real Job and the Fast Track Begins

What a Convenience, or a Real Second Love?

Rich Drives Pregnant Marion to Town

Billy Jr., 9 lbs. 8 oz.!

The Sheraton off I-40

Any Newcomer’s from Hanes here?

The Count Goes to Four

The Ms. America Project

Good News, Bad News?

Katie Makes a Call in Denver

Billy and the Red Hanes

Miracle in the Mile High City

The Cash Register Rings On

Where does the School Bell Ring?

To Forgive or Live Alone

Living in a Smaller Ranch Home

Did Someone Ask About Tories?

Share and Share Alike

Son’s Sign at Promise Keepers: Let’s Do It

Kathryn Leaves Again, Forever

The Long Road to Wholeness

Where Does Billy Go From Here?

Billy Closes Up Shop

About the Author

Setting the Stage

Right after the Great War, men and women were returning to their lives, and were busy building new homes. The families that sprung up were not like the Southland’s rural homesteads that had been tied to farming for so many eons. Instead, small communities, where houses cost less than $4,000, were burgeoning in great number.

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Roscoe and Sara’s 1942 Home

Money was scarce for everyone, but after the rationing coupons of the war, a regular job was more important. Credit was given to many just on their good word, or simply a firm handshake. Billy was a product of this new society as neighborhoods continually popped up across the country. It was not like the urban centers or port cities; after all, it was the South, and other than Atlanta, there was not much happening in regional towns that began to enlarge and grow. Christian homes were abounding as everyone seemed joyous to have the killing war behind them. Gratefulness and opportunity was evident in each neighborhood.

Main Character Emerges

Billy was a sickly child. He suffered from double pneumonia at a time when the drug of choice for lung infections was sulfur and liquid iron. He was in and out of hospitals for infant years. In fact, when Billy was about five, he endured eight hospital visits in a single year. This was often under the solitude of an oxygen tent during the more medically primitive years in the 1940s’. Billy would ask a quarter from each visitor, and then stuff them into tinfoil chewing gum wraps until each was full. He would give them to his mom. This was the only activity Billy had to stay occupied.

He continued to grow up. While in his home during night time, Billy could hear noises from the crickets outside his window and the rumblings from Downtown Cary. He lived a good two or three miles from the train station, but the musical train’s whistles and clatter that sounded several times each evening were actually calming. It was a regular noise in the days before air conditioning, and widows stayed wide open.

The single, colorful print hanging on the bedroom wall made Billy think. He had observed that animated print for over nine years. The boy sliding into home plate. All the neighborhood kids were playing ball. Billy he could see the frisky dog in chase of the boy sliding. It was a great picture (probably a cheap one), but it made him dream about the neighborhood games and sports played in his streets or open lots in Ridgemont.

The Owen home that was built in 1942 was typical of the post-war homes. It was a simple two bedroom, one bath. Roscoe Owen would eventually expand the back portion of the home, creating a bedroom, bath and den. Years later, the family would pave the driveway.

Moreover, a garage would be added, though it was seldom used for cars. It was often the keeper of tools and a storage room for boxes of items Sara no longer wanted. Roscoe cut a small doorway in the bottom of the front door to make way for the dachshunds they owned. He built a pallet inside that provided more care and attention than the beds on the inside of the new home.

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Sara and Billy at the Coast

His mother, Sara, was broken hearted with Billy’s sickness, as she had lost her previous son to SIDS in 1942 when he was just three-months-old. His dad was working to pay all the bills that came with the illness and keep the house mortgage on time for older sister, Adele. She was a healthy girl. She was the brown-eyed tomboy that could do most anything a boy could do, especially in basketball.

Sara Owen, Billy's Mom

Sara Owen on a Sunday

During winter, his mother kept Billy at the Carolina coast in an inexpensive, cold room so that the salt ocean air would help relieve his asthma and ease his labored breathing.

When the family was together later in years, Billy’s asthma and weakened lungs greatly improved, almost as if he outgrew the condition. His father led him to football, which became his primary activity. Billy had seen the inside of Duke Hospitals so often that it was easy to pull for the Blue Devils with his father. They and just a few other Cary men went to college football games at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham.

Duke%20Football-Hospital

Billy felt right at home at Duke, but he didn’t speak up much as he was a bit of an introvert. This was due to many things, like his sickness and his parent’s sadness over his older brother’s death to SIDS. Plus, his teeth rotted from using iron and sulfur. Billy was the planned child to replace James, who was born on Christmas in ’42 and died during that following Easter season. Billy didn’t know why Jimmy’s death was his fault, but he felt that way as he attended graveside tears on many occasions while his parents visited James’ gravesite.

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Billy and Roscoe at Duke

Billy’s Growth Helped

By the time he was 11 or 12, Billy had made some good