God's Motley Crew And A Mermaid Too!

By Lasann Lyman

In John 17, Jesus prayed for God to make his children one in unity, and it is my desire to help people who are seeking true meaning and fulfillment in their lives, to find it in Jesus Christ and to know that God loves them with an everlasting love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781646709977

Book preview

Acknowledgments

I want to thank God for revealing Himself to me (us) in such a magnificent way through the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit!

I’d also like to thank the staff at Covenant Books for helping me to share my testimony in print. Thank you for all your help; you have given me great encouragement! I may even get to write another book and have suggested to some friends of mine the idea that they may pursue writing a book too.

Thank you to my son, Caleb Murphree. You are a miracle, and I know that we have had a rough road to travel, but I am so proud of you and hope you will always stay (as Bob Dylan says) forever young.

Thanks to the Livingston and Onalaska, Texas, libraries and communities. You have made me feel so welcome, and I just love this area. It is very quaint. God bless y’all (hey, I am in Texas) real good!

Chapter 1

I was born on March 7, 1957, in Santa Monica, California.

My dad was a truck driver at the time of my birth, and my mom worked at the telephone company while she was pregnant with me.

Mom told me that one of the games she had at the baby shower party she had for me (when she was pregnant with me) was a game in which the person had to guess the baby’s name. Nobody guessed my name.

My mom got the idea for my name by combining Las (from my dad’s name, Douglas) and my mom’s middle name, Ann. I didn’t like my name when I was a young child, but now, I think it’s kind of cool to have a unique name. However, I still don’t like my maiden name (Lyman) but I did discover that the middle name of one of the pioneers of the Christian faith was Lyman (Dwight Lyman Moody). That fact has brought me much comfort, and I figure if it worked for him, it can work for me too.

Mom got pregnant with me while she was married to another man other than my father. She was married to my half-brothers’ father. They weren’t getting along, and Mom met my dad while she was singing and working in a bar.

People pressured my mom to abort me, but she didn’t.

Mom and my brothers’ dad divorced, and she and my dad got married in February of 1957 (in Las Vegas, I think), and I was born in March.

I miss my mom so much! Whenever I hear the song, I Miss You by the Rolling Stones, I think of her. She really loved to watch Mick Jagger (of the Rolling Stones) dance and perform on television!

I don’t know the details or why, but my mom was not allowed to have contact with her mother when she was growing up. Her dad and other of her family members raised her. Mom was raised in the circus. Her uncle had a circus: DeWayne Brothers Circus. They were very popular in their day! Mom could do aerial acts, and she had autographed pictures of Red Skelton and other famous people.

I often wonder what happened to my mom’s mom. Her name was Iona Witt, and Mom told me that her mother’s father was a full-blooded Indian, but I don’t know the name of the tribe they were in. Someday, I hope to discover facts about my family history.

Mom was born in Indiana.

I’m not sure how this came about, but at some point, in her younger days (before she married my brothers’ dad), Mom studied music under Irving Berlin (the famous songwriter). I think he wrote the song, White Christmas.

Mom could play the piano and could sing various opera songs, in Italian. I really didn’t like that kind of music, but Mom had a beautiful voice. She sang the song, To God Be the Glory (by Andrae Crouch) at church, shortly before her death in 1996.

When I was growing up, Mom and I weren’t close. We didn’t get along very well at all. She was always busy working, and she became rather promiscuous after my dad and her split up. They were always fighting. Mom rescued me twice when I was a young girl.

One time, some girls pushed me into the deep end of the swimming pool at the apartment we were living in. I didn’t know how to swim then, and I sunk to the bottom of the pool. Somehow, Mom got me out of the pool, although I don’t remember much about that. I just remember sitting with my legs spread open wide at the bottom of the pool, and I remember how sad I felt, thinking that that was how I was going to die but that was okay because life was so sad to me anyway, even at that young age. Mom had gotten me all dressed up, and my hair was curled (Shirley Temple style) to go to a party, and as I was waiting to go to the party, several girls pushed me into the pool. I was so excited to be going to a party because we moved around a lot, and I didn’t get invited to parties often. I was about seven years old at the time.

Around the same time (I was the same age) and while we were still living at the same apartment complex, Mom rescued me again. She came home (just in time) to rescue me from my father who was punching me so hard in the stomach that I couldn’t breathe. Mom called the police and when the police got there, they found drugs in the cookie jar and took my dad to jail.

My mom worked with a friend (Elaine). Elaine invited Mom, my two half-brothers (Jimmy and Devon), and me to live with her in her house in Playa del Rey, California. Elaine had a daughter (Cathy) who was a few years younger than me. As a young child, Cathy was the closest person I had as a sister and friend. Cathy and I had so much fun dressing up in our moms’ fancy clothes!

Elaine and Cathy lived in a beautiful, Chinese style two-story house, two or three blocks from the beach! Some of my (very few and far between) happiest childhood memories were made there.

Elaine’s father owned a guest ranch in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California, the Sierra Sky Ranch.

I remember when we got to go there one winter and stayed in one of their cabins. It was so beautiful, and I loved the snow! I also got to ride a horse while I was there!

While we were there (at the ranch), I tried to call my dad while he was in jail, but the man on the other end of the phone explained to me that I couldn’t talk to my dad. I was so sad and cried so hard!

Chapter 2

During most of my childhood, my dad was in and out of jail.

In 1969 (I was twelve years old), my dad was out of jail and working as a tow truck driver for an official police vehicle impounding company. When the owner of the company (Gary Antoine) found out my dad had me sleeping in his office when he wasn’t there, he invited me to come and live with him and his family in Calabasas, California. I don’t know where he is today, but he and his family were very good to me and even wanted to adopt me. Some more of my very happy childhood memories were made there, and I’m forever grateful to them for that because for the most part, my childhood was very traumatic and sad.

While I lived with the Antoines, my life was good. It was wonderful to be accepted and feel like I belonged in a loving family! I went to Catholic school (Our Lady of Malibu) while I lived with them, and I remember the first time I went into the beautiful stained-glass sanctuary. I remember thinking how neat it was that I’d be able to go there every day! It was so pretty, and even though I didn’t understand it, I felt a holy awe and reverence there!

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