You Raise Me Up

By Carolyn Reeves Shugart

As the child of a minister and domestic and foreign missionary, author Carolyn Reeves Shugart attended seven high schools on both the East and the West coasts. In You Raise Me Up, she offers an honest memoir of her life growing up and maturing in the faith of the Lord. From her early years as a minister’s daughter, to her adult years working for the government and in a crisis pregnancy center, to raising her own family, Shugart shares her experiences and what she learned about living a fulfilling, godly life. She narrates how she married a US Navy enlisted man when she was seventeen, had four children, and weathered her husband’s untimely death when she was just thirty-nine years old. With photos included, You Raise Me Up shares Shugart’s story—a journey filled with God’s grace—to serve as a history for her children and grandchildren. It also offers a host of wisdom and lessons learned from a woman who has lived a full life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Sep 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781483457239

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Shugart

Copyright © 2016 Carolyn Reeves Shugart.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-5722-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-5724-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-5723-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016913830

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.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 09/02/2016

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 Early Beginnings

Chapter 2 Married Life Begins

Chapter 3 Widowhood

Chapter 4 Career

Chapter 5 Sickness and Darkness

Chapter 6 Repentance and Return

Chapter 7 Retirement

Chapter 8 Final Thoughts

Appendix A Sample Bill Paying Log and My Finances

Appendix B Suggestions for Coping with a Spouse’s Death

Appendix C Pictures

To my late husband, Tom Shugart; our four children and their families, Tom and Cindy, Carole and Greg, Candace and Charlie, and Christie and Pat; my ten grandchildren, Serena, Vincent, Dominic, Brielle, Vito, Samantha, Joseph, Christopher, Carley, and Tommy; and all the new little great-grandchildren who are arriving. I have been so blessed to have you all in my life, and I love you very much.

Preface

This book has been in my heart and head for approximately thirty years. Why, you say, did you decide to write a book? Well, my purpose for writing this book is threefold. First, I had children and was beginning to have grandchildren and wanted to share with them some of the family history and lessons I have learned. Now that thirty years have passed, great-grandchildren are arriving, and I have learned even more lessons. Second, I have had some life experiences that I felt, if shared, might benefit others. In addition, I had the privilege of being a director of a crisis pregnancy center for three years after I retired from government. From that I have a heart for young people to lead peaceful, spiritual lives by making wise decisions. Lastly, I grew up as a minister’s daughter in a very conservative church that believed that the gifts of the spirit as outlined in the New Testament ceased in the second century. When I was in my midthirties I had an experience with God that was life changing, prompting me to do a complete turnaround in my spiritual life. I thought the story might be of interest.

I want to thank my family for their patience with me through the years. I also want to thank my many friends and acquaintances over the years, including people who have caused me pain, because having them in my life has helped me to grow and become who I am today. Special thanks to Gerrye Indermill, who was gracious enough to agree to edit this book. I hope that you will enjoy reading it and sharing in the experiences with me. If you have comments or questions, please feel free to e-mail me at [e-mail].

Chapter 1

Early Beginnings

When we come into this world, we don’t really know what our circumstances will be. I was one of the more fortunate ones. I was born in Dallas, Texas, on July 1, 1940, to a sweet man who wanted to be a minister and his dedicated wife.

My dad, William (Bill) Reeves, worked at Proctor & Gamble and was on a fast track to become a foreman over some new equipment that would make a product called Tide. My mother, Marguerite, was a homemaker. About a year after I was born, my dad left his job and began studying to become a minister. My first recollection as a child is being in a home with my parents and my baby brother, Paul David, having dinners and sitting with them in church and singing. Paul is two and a half years younger than me. My mother almost died when she gave birth to him. She had a placenta previa, which means the afterbirth comes first. She had one of the first C-sections, and it was done in a religious hospital where the child’s life was given priority over the mother’s. My dad had to agree to that priority, and he watched the surgery from the operating room door. I am so thankful for our advances in medicine and for my brave parents.

In 1929, my dad’s oldest brother, Robert Webster Reeves, was a naval officer stationed in Newport, Rhode Island. He saw the Great Depression coming and put my dad into the navy on what was called a kiddy cruise. Dad enlisted at sixteen and agreed to be discharged by his twenty-first birthday. Dad hitchhiked from south of Dallas to Newport to attend boot camp and become an electrician and gyroscope specialist.

In 1945, with two small children, my mom and dad decided to move to Abilene, Texas, for Dad’s formal college training at Abilene Christian College (ACC), now Abilene Christian University. When I reached school age, I was put into what ACC called its demonstration school, which was primarily established to train student teachers. When Dad graduated, I was ready to start third grade.

Dad used the electrician training to support himself and his family while at ACC. He bought World War II barracks and had two at a time moved onto lots, where he would renovate them, wire them, and sell them as duplexes. He and a group of his fellow ministry students had one barracks brought onto a lot in a part of Abilene called TP Lane, now Minda Street. They made it into a church. We had a car named Raggle-Taggle that had a plywood window in the driver’s door. My dad had cut a hole about four inches in diameter so he could see out. Raggle-Taggle had doors that didn’t lock very well. One day on the way to TP Lane, as Dad rounded a corner, the door flew open, and I was almost catapulted across the street. Fortunately, Dad grabbed my hand and saved me.

Dad also worked as an electrician for other builders. I remember one day when Mother, who normally worked in a department store, was helping him with a house. She had a gallon of water sitting on the ground next to her purse. The bottle with the hot sun streaming through it acted like a magnifying glass and set her purse on fire, which we quickly put out. It was amazing to a young child that a simple bottle of water could cause that to happen. On weekends, small churches in outlying areas would hire ministerial students to preach for them. To make more money and gain experience, Dad would do that, and we would go with him.

I don’t want to move on from speaking about Abilene until I include the fact that it was there where Dad began an almost lifelong habit of hospitality. Scripture encourages Christians to be hospitable toward others. I don’t think many of us do that today, because money is usually tight and lives are busy, and when we get some downtime, we turn to TV or a good book. Dad believed it was really important to get to know people, and he believed having a meal with them was the way to do it. In Abilene, Dad was married and had a family, while most of his ministerial student buddies were single. Dad had them over regularly for meals. To be thrifty, he would cut the meat and the pound cake really thin so his buddies thought they were getting more food. Dad was very conscientious about hospitality until he had a stroke in his sixties. It was not unusual during my entire growing-up years for Mother to come home from work and find the table set, the floor vacuumed, and food cooking on the stove. She was always fine with what Dad did. My brother continues that practice to this day. He has people to dinner every week or two. He has his menu of barbecue chicken or pork chops, baked potatoes, vegetable, and salad with raspberry vinaigrette down to a science, and he has mastered the grill. He even sets the table. My sister-in-law doesn’t have to get involved until the last minute.

Once Dad graduated from ACC, he accepted a preaching position in a very small Texas town named Hankamer, located between Houston and Beaumont. The town was named after two brothers. One of the brothers, Adolph Hankamer, was a leader in our church, and he was very good to Dad. We had only been there a few weeks when Brother Hankamer decided Raggle-Taggle didn’t look very dignified for their preacher. He bought Dad a brand new Chevrolet. He also bought me new shoes.

Hankamer had a three-room school. Right after I enrolled and started third grade, the teacher told Mother that because I had been in an academy type of setting, I was advanced enough to skip