Life by Candle

By Israel Vela

I believe no one wants to go through a life like this, but I did. One day my life started flashing before me. And even though my parents struggled through this life with us, I treasure every moment we went through. I love them so! This is a story that truly happened. My dad served in the USA Air Force/Army/and National Guard. And every time he came back to us, he worked while he was at home. He moved us a lot across Texas, depending where he served. He tried his best to keep us together and avoid being noticed of our conditions, and being a boy through all of that time, I was not told anything of my dad. It was just that we went through very hard times, and that's what I never wanted to think. I am not perfect, just one who has been through so much, till now. I still have faith in Jesus Christ. I flew out of a car, saw a UFO, got beaten up, had out-of-body experiences, run over by a car, cancer survivor, suffered a heart attack, and am still here.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 9, 2018
• ISBN: 9781640280076

Book preview

November 22, 1950, was the day I was born. This is my life story. It all began when I was eleven months old. My dad’s name is Fred F. Vela Jr. My mother’s name is Maria D. Vela. My dad had just come out of the army; so my dad, mother, and one of my aunts went to Monterrey, Mexico, on a vacation; and my mother took me along with them. They drove all the way down there and back. It was cold when they were getting close to Laredo, Texas, and it all began to happen. My mother had me wrapped up in a small blanket, and they had the windows up. My dad had a 1949 Chevrolet with small windows on the side, and it had lots of room inside, and he was asking my mother if she was asleep. This happened early in the morning, when all of a sudden a herder was crossing his sheep across a short road along the hills of Mexico, and my dad saw them kind of late. He slammed on his breaks, and instead of driving down the hill, his car drove up, and they flipped over. Some of their things were all over the road. My dad and mother were cut and bruised all over. My aunt was also bruised and shaken up. Me? Well, they couldn’t find me. My mother started yelling out, Fred, where’s Israel? They crawled out of the car looking for me, and the herder and some other people from a nearby village ran out to help my mom and dad. They were saying that I was under the car, so everyone got together and turned the car over, but I wasn’t there. Someone heard me crying. My dad saw me down that hillside. They saw a white spot on the top of a field of cactus. My dad ran down the hill, over a wire fence, and he said I was facing up like if someone put me there. He also said I was crying very loud, so he grabbed me quick, and the people were saying to each other, a miracle had occurred. My dad turned the car back on, and they rushed me to the hospital across the USA boarder. They took X-rays, tests, and all. The doctors in Laredo Texas said that I was crying because I was hungry.

So after all this, my mother said that the people from that nearby village put a sign saying, Here a miracle has occurred. A few years went by, and the first thing I remember is when I was three years old. It was a Christmas morning in San Antonio, Texas. I was sitting there next to the Christmas tree, and my oldest brother, Fred, had an electric train. I had a little car in my hand, and I would run it over the tracks as the train went by. I also remember my brother Fred had Polio. Well, he was walking on his crutches, and one of the crutches slipped into a hole, and he fell down. I was standing next to my mother in that foggy morning when this happened. Then the last thing I remember hear in San Antonio was that all of a sudden, there was something happening. My dad put me in the front seat, and I stood up looking over the dashboard. My mother had my newborn sister, Dalia, in her lap. And in the back was my oldest brother Fred, Ruben, and my two sisters, Lydia and Alicia. As we were taking off, I looked out the front window, and I saw my brother’s electric train up against the wall in a box inside the garage. My dad was packing up the car. I was trying to tell my mom because I couldn’t talk yet. So before I knew it, we moved to McAllen, Texas. We had left everything behind. In 1953, we moved to McAllen, Texas. We moved to a government home. They called it La Retama. There were many homes in this neighborhood. They were in section homes side by side. It was rectangular shape and made of brick. On each block, they had at least five sets of homes. In front of our house was a very large open space as far as your eyes can see. And to our right side was a baseball field. I remember our first day here in McAllen, Texas, I was standing next to my mother. We were on the sidewalk. I saw some guys unloading a truck with our furniture. I saw a dresser, some chairs, boxes, and they were using a two-wheeler. Then I began to remember more of my life. One evening around 7:00 p.m. or so, my dad and mother were sitting next to each other, and I was standing between them. I was looking around, and I saw my big brother, Fred, sitting on a piece of cardboard spinning himself around and around. Fred is the oldest, then there’s Ruben, Lydia, Alicia, me, and my baby sister, Dalia, who was asleep inside. So one night like many other nights, we were doing the same thing in the front of the house. Like always, Fred liked to spin himself on that piece of cardboard, and Ruben ran around, trying to catch fireflies in the dark. My two sisters, Lydia and Alicia, ran around playing.

So Ruben asked my dad, What are these flying bugs?

My dad said, They are small flying UFO. We all turned around to listen to my dad. He was telling us scary stories about UFO, and he said, There goes one behind you, Fred! And Fred got scared and covered himself quickly with the cardboard, and we all began to cry. My dad and mother were laughing. They comforted us and then took us inside. So in those days, the people in this neighborhood were so active. There were games played, acts, dancing, and singing. One day, this couple who lived several houses down made a circus act. They invited all the kids from the neighborhood for drinks and candy, and they gathered all of us in the backyard. Facing the back door of their house, they passed around drinks for all of us. So this lady came running out from the back door, and she flipped over and made some acts. We all cheered and clapped our hands. Then this guy came out, and he pretended that he was a strong man. There were people acting, singing, and dancing. We had so much fun. Then later around 6:00 p.m., we went home. Another day went by. In those days, La Retama Village was a nice, clean, and pretty place to live at. I remember warm and happy days there. All these good times are embedded in my mind so deep I can feel the presence of being there. I shared in this two-bed room; one is a bunk bed. I slept on the top. My brother Ruben was on the bottom. Fred, the oldest, had his own bed; well, he has polio. I remember one day when I was running down the hallway into my mother’s room because my dad was after me for doing something I wasn’t supposed to do. I jumped on the bed, and I put both hands up against the wall.

My mother stood between me and my dad and said, Leave him alone! Then one day we were all playing in the backyard, and there was this man adding dirt between each home. He was making a hump between the houses. After he was done, a few days later, he unplugged this round cement sticking out from the ground in the center of the backyard, and lots of water came out. The whole backyard was filled with water up to the cement porch. Later that night, you could still see water pumping out from that pipe. Wow! The next day, the whole neighborhood came out late in the afternoon, and many of them were walking in the water, wow! We had lots of fun, and we looked so funny just looking down. There were small fish and tap polls swimming in the water. Right on our backyard. The backyard was about forty feet by eighty yards long, and it looked just like a lake! The following day we had to go through the front and follow the sidewalk to go around the neighborhood. That night we sat on the small cement porch in the back. I saw everybody’s porch light on. We were running our hand in the water. I saw some tadpoles and small fish swimming around, and all through the night we heard frogs, and there were many of them. This went on for a week or so. Later that month like many nights in those summer days, we were again in the front just sitting on the sidewalk, and the lights from the baseball field next to us was shining through the neighborhood. The wind was blowing slowly, and they were talking on the loud speaker during the game. The wind carried the sound throughout the neighborhood. I heard this kid playing in a distance. I also heard some cars and trucks going through some busy street. Sounds that I will never forget. We always had something to do here.

Times had gone by, and back then in 1957, there I was running around and playing with my red wagon. I pretended to be a car as I rushed down the sidewalk. We had some friends who lived in front of the baseball field. Their names were Bar Bra Ortiz, Yule Ortiz, and my best friend, Beve Ortiz. The two girls