Scars in Life

By Gwen Williams

A true story of Josie Gwen Williams’ life including; original poems, and also scriptures. A book full of tears, laughter and joy. life’s calamities and triumphs with God at the helm. A girl born with asthma, healed of an incurable blood disease. When everything seemed dark, God in His love interceded. God’s presence was with her through every avenue, turn and bend. “Scars In Life”, is full of accounts of her life from childhood to adult.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664233294

Gwen Williams

Josie Gwen Williams, wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother. Her first novel, Shadow Walker, (A Shadow of the Past) was her first novel, published in 2003. Shadow Walker (a Shadow of the Past) is the first novel in a trilogy. She has one other novel besides the trilogy, a children’s book and published poems to her name. Josie Gwen participated in a Writer’s Convention as well as other activities for authors. As a wife of a pastor, she has produced bulletins for the church and she has taught Sunday School. You can see the East Texas, country girl standing uniquely out in her writing.

Book preview

SCARS

IN LIFE

GWEN WILLIAMS

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Copyright © 2021 Gwen Williams.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

844-714-3454

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 Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked with a * taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMP), Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

ISBN: 978-1-6642-3330-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-3331-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-3329-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021908754

WestBow Press rev. date: 05/10/2021

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Beginning

Chapter 2 Starting from the First

Chapter 3 Asthma

Chapter 4 Flu Epidemic

Chapter 5 A Ladder and a Bucket

Chapter 6 Scars of Some Kind

Chapter 7 The Little Red Rocking Chair

Chapter 8 My Older Brother

Chapter 9 The Birthday Cake

Chapter 10 My Younger Sister

Chapter 11 My Baby Brother

Chapter 12 The Picking Patch

Chapter 13 My Baby Sister

Chapter 14 The Hole

Chapter 15 Grandma and the Nap

Chapter 16 Grandma and the Dog

Chapter 17 Grandma Packing to Meet Jesus

Chapter 18 The Moon Is Following Us

Chapter 19 One Hundred Kids and a Baby Elephant

Chapter 20 The Haircut

Chapter 21 I Can’t See

Chapter 22 The Baby Rabbit

Chapter 23 The Rubber Mouse

Chapter 24 Daddy and the Train

Chapter 25 Playing Airplanes

Chapter 26 The Car Wreck

Chapter 27 Though God Slay Me

Chapter 28 She Is Too Big

Chapter 29 The Treasure Chest

Chapter 30 Polycythemia

Chapter 31 Scarlet Fever

Chapter 32 Moving

Chapter 33 Chickens

Chapter 34 Blondie

Chapter 35 The Motorcycle

Chapter 36 Me, the Hawk, and Goldie

Chapter 37 Bromley Creek

Chapter 38 Summertime

Chapter 39 Vacations

Chapter 40 The Tornado

Chapter 41 When Does Salvation Come?

Chapter 42 The Bullet

Chapter 43 Daddy

Chapter 44 Mulling Over My Younger Years

Chapter 45 Little Girls Grow Up

Chapter 46 Fredie

Chapter 47 The Hayride

Chapter 48 The Quiz!

Chapter 49 The Healing

Chapter 50 The Bike Ride

Chapter 51 First Year of Marriage

Chapter 52 Common Denominators

Chapter 53 The Well-Done Potatoes

Chapter 54 Our Sons

Chapter 55 The Lunch Box

Chapter 56 Fixing Things

Chapter 57 Family Projects

Chapter 58 School or Not

Chapter 59 The Snake Bite

Chapter 60 My Daughters

Chapter 61 Life Continues

Chapter 62 Unexpected Gifts

Chapter 63 Wisterias

Chapter 64 The Surgery

Chapter 65 Granddaughter

Chapter 66 Granddaughter Knowledge

Chapter 67 Our Mothers

Chapter 68 Three 9-1-1 Calls

Chapter 69 An Author? Me?

Chapter 70 The Boat Ride

Bibliography

PREFACE

My name is Josie Gwen Cunningham Williams. I was born in November 1955. This book is about my life. I am a country girl and daughter of a truck driver who was also a lumberjack.

Have you ever had a problem that was beyond your comprehension or your control? The only way to go is up because you are as far down as you can go.

Scars in Life is my story. I was born with asthma. I would turn black before my breath was brought back to my tiny lungs.

When I was two, I lost my three-year-old brother due to an accident, I was ten when I was in a car accident and I was diagnosed with an incurable blood disease at the age of twelve.

This is the story of a country girl who becomes a young woman, and with every trial in her life, the Lord brought her through to victory.

This is a tale of being lost but also found. I lost my brother but found that Jesus was always there for me. All I had to do was reach out, and He was ready to take my hand.

As the song Through It All, written by Andréa Crouch, says, she learned through it all to trust in Jesus.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to thank the Lord first for all the love and protection He has shown me throughout my life. Without Him, I would not be here. I love Him more than any words can say.

I want to thank Fredie for all the love and support he has shown me. Besides the Lord, he is my everything. I love him so much.

I also want to thank everyone mentioned within the pages of this book—my siblings, who played a big part in my life, and my children especially. I love you all.

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. (Philippians 4:13)

INTRODUCTION

People who are born with asthma and other difficulties—who got what you might call the short end of the stick—can overcome those difficulties because God is on their side. I am a typical American woman who loves the Lord with all her heart, soul, and mind. Life is good, so we should enjoy every minute of it and live it to the fullest. Jesus gave His life for us, so we should live for Him. This book is for anyone who needs a little encouragement or maybe a good laugh at someone else’s mistakes. We have all gotten scars in life, and I hope and pray that some will come away from reading this book with an understanding that life goes on no matter what may happen to us. God is with us in every situation, every trial, and every joy we go through. Giving up is not an option. Look around you and know that God in all His glory cares for you and me. He measured the stars with the span of His hands, yet He still holds us safely in those very same hands.

Scars in life may come in different forms. To start with, there are outward scars and inward scars. Scars leave a lasting impression on a person. The outward scars can be red and ugly, big or small. I have big ones and small ones, but they have faded and are hard to see now. I received my first outward scars when I was ten years old, as you’ll find out in the chapter titled The Car Wreck. I was thrown from the car. The inward scars can be very ugly too. I received my inward scars through life before and after the car wreck. People whispered about the scars on my leg. I also had acne so badly that sometimes I looked as if I had the measles. It was on my face and my arms, where I could not hide it. I was not allowed to wear makeup, which could have helped hide it, and I became very self-conscious. I hid all this inside and became a very sad young lady. As I entered my teen years, I knew no one would want me. I had no one to love me. There were times I cried myself to sleep. As a teen, life was not easy. My inward scars were hidden from the world, and they took longer than the outward ones to heal and fade. Big or small, I have dealt with my share of scars. The definition of scar according to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language is any sign of damage remaining as evidence of injury or an injurious mental or physical condition.

He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds. (Psalm 147:3)

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1

The Beginning

M y life has been pretty uneventful according to the world’s measuring stick. I grew up as most East Texas children did, playing and going to school. My high school years were spent at a country school in New London, Texas—a town that is known for a school explosion in 1937. A gas leak occurred on March 18, and a spark ignited it. More than 295 students and teachers were killed in the explosion. In fact, my high school has an extensive history. The name of the school is now West Rusk, and it is the home of the West Rusk Rai ders.

I was not very popular in school. In fact, when a young freshman girl would see me coming down the hall, she would tease her senior boyfriend by saying, Here comes your girlfriend. I would pass by them and act like I didn’t hear her. It hurt to hear someone say that, but life goes on. Life is not always easy for teenagers in school. Jesus loves us, and that is what counts. I was and am a country girl. If anyone hears me talking, there is no way I can hide that I am a Texan.

I learned all the skills that a young teen girl should learn—cleaning, cooking, sewing, and mowing the lawn, or yard, as we call it in the country. I was taught the art of stacking firewood and brush. The brush, for those who may not know, is the limbs left over that are not big enough to use as firewood. We stacked all this into a pile, and then someone else would burn it. I know the intricacies of measuring pulpwood, which I learned while helping my father in the woods. He was a lumberjack, and he cut and hauled his own pulpwood, which is used