GOD IS SO GOOD

by Lila (Pinon) Lloyd

 

My sister, Lila Lloyd, has been diagnosed with cancer in her sinus cavities.  The tumor is said to be the size of a man's fist.  With this news on her mind, she got up in the night and began to write.  This is what she said:

 

 

                   GOD IS SO GOOD

  

What is this night going to be like?  Forty-six years ago a student set up a blind date for me.   Was it some joke that a high school student dreamed up?  A student kept telling me about this guy and that he was going to call me.  It was several weeks before he called.  When he called, we talked for forty-five minutes on the phone, and set up a date.  What was he going to be like?  Finally he arrived and he was really thin and his hair was thin.

He was sweet, thoughtful and considerate especially to me.  Four and a half months later we were married.  What a wonderful gift of God he was to me and continues to be nearly forty-six years later.

 

The next year we found out that we were going to have our first child.  I nearly miscarried with him, but again God worked a miracle and we had a five pounds eight and a half ounce baby boy.  He was an extra good baby and we could take him anywhere and know he would do great.  Life was great.

 

Then things changed.  Dave decided to quit the TV business that he had been doing for several years.  We decided to look for work in Dallas.  My parents lived in Dallas, so I was happy about this.  After we had been there a few days, my mother became very ill and had to be put in the hospital.  She had been in ill health for a long time.  They were going to let her out of the hospital one day, but they decided to keep her one more day.  We were looking for a job in Dallas that day.  We decided to go by the hospital on our way home.  It was 5:30 when we got there, so we told her that we would not come back that night, she said that Papa was not coming back that night because he had been there late.  Mom gave her flowers to her room mate because she said she was going home, (little did we know she was really going home and didn’t need flowers).  She told me to take care of myself, I told her she was the one who needed to take care of herself.  We went home, and at 9:00 the phone rang.  It was the hospital, and they wanted  Papa to come there.  We told him we were going with him,  When we got there Mom’s room mate was in the hallway crying, and Mom’s door was closed.  Dave had stayed in the car with Floyd as we could not take him in the hospital.  I knew right away what had happened, but Papa didn’t notice.  The doctor came in and told him that Mom was doing great and all of a sudden she passed away and he wanted to do an autopsy.  The doctor left the room and Papa said she still might live, why is he talking about an autopsy.  I had to explain to my Dad that she was not still alive. 

 

We went out in the hall and her room mate said she wanted to talk to us.  She said Mom asked her what time it was, and the woman told her 8:30, Mom said I don’t guess anyone is coming to see me then, I guess I’ll roll over and go to sleep.  The woman then heard the death sound.  She went so peacefully and for that we are grateful.  God was good to let us be there for Papa during that time. 

 

We ended up moving to Lovington, New Mexico.  Dave went to work for Sears.  We had been out of work for over a month and were really broke.  Dave’s dad loaned us money,  but he figured out to the dollar how much we should need.  The movers charged us $50 more than they said they would, and that was what he had allowed for us to spend for groceries.  We had no food in the house because we had been gone from home for so long.  We had less than $2 between us.  Back then there were no credit cards.  We had a gas card.  We decided to buy gas and go to Pecos to borrow money from Dave’s dad to get us by until we got a pay check.  We used to little money we had for hot dogs and one coke for the three of us.  We went to Pecos, but when we got there we could not find Dave’s dad anywhere.  We finally went to a station that would take any gas card and got gas to go back home.  The station also sold milk.  I asked the man if I could put milk on the card for my baby.  He said we could, but if we could not have he would have given it to me.  Just as we were getting ready to leave Dave’s brother came and loaned us $25 he said he would get it back from his dad the next day.  The next day we got a check from my dad and Dave’s dad in the mail, so we could eat for a while.  We had no telephone.  We had a van that we sold to pay back my father-in-law.  We sold the van, but we did not have a checking account, and no one would cash an out of town check.  We had put our other car in the repair shop thinking we could pay for it with the money from the van, but when we could not cash the check, we had no money to pay for the car repair.  We now could not go anywhere.  We had some friends from Pecos who had moved to Lovington, we called to see if they could loan us money to get the car, so we could go to Pecos to cash the check.  They were broke and could not do it.  We called the repairman and offered him a brand new TV for the repair bill.  He said he would not do that to us, that if we gave him the money he would give us the car.  We were really depressed, about this time the neighbor came over and said she would loan us the money, she had also lived in Pecos.  She was God’s angel to us.

 

After this, we started saving money to move from Lovington.  We went to look at a job at TI and they said they would pay us for our expenses.  We got the money later when we really needed it again.   Dave decided to get a transfer with Sears to Dallas.  My dad took pictures of houses in Dallas and told us how much each house was, and the size of the house.  One of the houses was a block from where my brother lived and we knew exactly what the house looked like.  It was reasonable so we told Papa to buy it for us.  It was just a hundred dollars down, so we quickly paid Papa that and the house was our new home. 

 

Again life was very good for a while.  I became pregnant with our second child.  We got a little girl who weighed eight pounds three and a half ounces.  She was two weeks late and Floyd had been two weeks early.  She was like she was a month old when she was born.

 

Papa got married and life was great for a while.  Pauline became unhappy, and soon filed for divorce.  Our hearts were broken.  I have two brothers and a brother-in-law who are preachers.  It gave all of us a different view about divorce, Papa had tried so hard to make the marriage work.  We all have more compassion for others now. 

  

Dave’s dad had a heart attack.  They called us, and we left immediately for Pecos, his dad passed away just before we got to Pecos.  This was hard, I was able to stay with Dave’s mother and little sister and help for a week while Dave went back to Dallas to work.  Darletta, Floyd and I went back on the bus to Dallas.

 

I taught school for one semester in Dallas, during this time Dave quit his job and went to work for an individual.  Floyd got really sick during that time, the doctor said a lot of air had escaped from his lungs.  The doctor had us put him in the hospital immediately.  Dave looked at the insurance he had a Sears and they said it was good for one month after he quit Sears, he went in the hospital three and a half weeks after he had quit Sears.  The insurance paid all but twelve dollars of the hospital bill.   God healed Floyd completely.  How awesome is our God.

 

We decided to move to Arizona because we thought Floyd would do better there, since part of his problem was asthma.  We sold our house and rented a Ryder truck to move.   With our dog in a wire trash can, we started out.   Dave had one child with him and I had the other one with me.  My dad wished us well, but I saw a tear flow down his face.  I knew then if we moved, that I would never see my dad alive again. 

 

We stopped in Midland and spent the night with Dave’s brother Conrad.  They tried to get us to move to Midland, but I did not want to move to Midland.  They convinced us to look in Odessa.  We looked for two days, but could not find anything.  Then we looked in Midland, we found a house that was reasonable and that we really liked.  The people had to come from Oklahoma to sign the papers.  They said it would be a week before they could come to sign the papers.  We asked if we could put the big stuff in the house so that we could empty the truck and turn it in.  They said that we could do that.  We put the rest of it in Conrad’s garage and relaxed for a week..  After waiting for a week, we got a call from the realtor telling us they just found out that there was a seven thousand dollar lein on the house.  The people had been living together for ten years so they were legally married, but he had never divorced his wife and she was claiming the house was part hers.  Dave and Conrad got the things out of the house, but we still did not have a house.  We saw a house in the paper that said no money down.  We looked at it and fell in love with it.  The kitchen was in the front,  It had a sunken living room and lots of closets,  It also had a nice den instead of a garage.  We told them we would like to buy it, but they had five children and had not started to pack.  We told them we needed a house soon.  They said they could be out by the next day.  We said we wanted it, and they were out by the next night.  How awesome a God we serve.  The first house would never have been big enough because we ended up with five children.

 

The first year here I got pregnant with Darrell.  Gloria was getting married that summer.  I was really nauseated with Darrell.  We went to Pecos and Gloria wanted me to take her to get her hair fixed on her wedding day, I had to vomit first, she didn’t know it, and they didn’t know I was pregnant so she told me to forget it, I was not fast enough for her.

 

Dave lost his job for being honest.  We knew that God would not let us fail because Dave had done the right thing.  We then started our own business and things started going good.

 

Again things started going good, but suddenly things changed.  One night the policeman knocked on our door.  I was at Don and Sarah’s house and David told me to come home immediately that the police had come to the door.  I got halfway home and realized that it must be something with my dad.  I got home and asked Dave how my dad was doing.  He said I didn’t say anything about your dad.  Then he said call Harley.  My dad had a stroke and was in a comma.  He had always been afraid of being found dead and stinking.  From the length of his beard, and mail in the mailbox, he must have been there three or four days before Harley checked and the police found him in his apartment.  We drove all night, but Papa didn’t wake up.  We had to empty his apartment.  Alma came, and she was able to stay.  Alma and Harley found a nursing home that would take care of Papa like a hospital, but had a nursing home if he got better.  It was a Christian home and they honored medicare.  He was in the home there for three weeks.

 

After three weeks Papa passed away.  We knew he would never recover.  We were grateful that God gave us three weeks to realize that we were losing Papa, but he never had to suffer.  We were grateful to God for giving us this time to accept what was happening.

 

God knew how hard it was for me to lose both parents by the time that I was thirty-three.  Again I became pregnant.  This time my skin broke out everywhere except my face.  I was put on prednisone.  My leg started swelling and I had a hard time of it.  After this a new episode started.

 

Dave found a building that he wanted to buy for a TV shop.  It was an old building with nearly an acre of land for $5,000.  We bought it with Conrad.  We were going to take out insurance.  Conrad said it would be cheaper if someone lived there.  We were going to get Sarah’s dad to live there, but we had to get the water well fixed first.  It started raining and did not quit for three weeks.  We started checking and found out that we could get insurance at a good price without anyone living there. Conrad gave me his half for the insurance, I called to take out insurance, but we didn’t have our half of the money yet.  I told them I wanted to take out insurance, and asked when I would have to pay.  They said I had two weeks to pay.  I asked when it would go into effect, they said right then and I had two weeks to pay.  Ten days afterwards, Conrad called to say that the building was on fire.  Dave was down in his back.  I told him not to upset Dave because his back was out.  He told me to get Dave.  Dave started saying all my dreams just went up in smoke.  I told him Conrad was lying and I was going to prove it to him.  I called the fire department and asked if they had a fire at 5001 Andrews Highway recently.  They said it was four hours before, and it was no wiener roast.  They said they had four units out there.  I called the insurance company to see if we had insurance, they said yes.  I asked if I could come pay it right then. They said I could, I told them the building was on fire, could I still pay it, they said that I could.  I paid, but they did not do anything about paying us.  They had told us I had to take out insurance for $10,000 which I did.  They kept ignoring us.  We wrote the state insurance board and they told us if we did not sign a proof of loss statement within 90 days the insurance company would not have to pay.  We called the insurance company and they told me that was wrong.  We kept working with the state board and they kept telling us the same thing.  It was finally 85 days, we called the state board again and the insurance company called.  They said we have a check for you, but you can not pick it up until after Christmas.  They would not tell us how much it was for either. After Christmas we went to get it and it was for $10,000.  How good is our God.  Several months later the insurance company sent us a refund on our premium because they had canceled our insurance after they had paid the full amount.  We found someone who tore the building down for the good wood that was still in the building.  Only the roof had burned, but it would cost more than $10,000 to repair it. 

 

In March our fourth child was born.  We named him Michael Robert Lloyd. My mother-in-law said she would call him Mike.  I told her she better not because she had just had a dog named Mike die.  She said he will be called Mike.  I told her he would never be called that.  She wanted me to change his name, but I didn’t.  She never called him Mike and I never did either until after she passed away.  Now we all know him as Mike and he was another one of the great gifts that God gave to us. 

 

We took our insurance money and borrowed some more money, and had a building built.  About this time I found out that I was pregnant again.  We were worried since I had so many problems with my skin with Mike.  The doctors had learned how to take care of me, and our family was now complete with five children, four boys and one girl,

 

I started having problems with food getting stuck.  Sometimes it would get stuck for two and a half days at a time.  I could talk and breathe, but I could not swallow anything.  It was really hard.  The whole family decided to go to Ruidoso during this time.  My mother-in-law went with us.  The food was stuck in my throat the whole time we were in Ruidoso.  My mother-in-law had to stay in the condo in Ruidoso because there were over a hundred steps down.  I stayed with her the whole time because I could not go anywhere with food stuck.  She and I got to visit the whole week-end. 

What a wonderful time that was for me with her.  When we came back home, she went in the hospital.  She died about three weeks later.  She was in the hospital and they were trying to get rid of fluid.  She fell and broke her hip.  They did surgery and she recovered, but the next day her kidneys quit and she passed away.  I am so glad I had those days with her near the end. 

 

Paul developed a rare muscle disease about this time.  We had to have a muscle biopsy and a lot of test.  Paul could only walk backwards during this time.  Things really looked bad.  Dr. Foster asked me if we had thought about contacting MDA.  He told me how to get in touch with them.  Everything had looked bad.  I looked up and there was a cloud with a silver lining.  I started singing the song Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining Every Care Has a Blessing too If We Look For The Silver Lining When The Lamp of God Shines Through.  When I got back to the shop, the lady from MDA called me, and said that the disease that Paul had was something they would pay for, they would pay everything that insurance didn’t pay.  I told her we did not have insurance.  She said they would pay everything except the pills which were less than $10 a month.  They also paid the doctors all the bills we had paid and the doctors paid us back what we had paid them.

When the doctor we were going to found out MDA  was paying, he kept doing more blood test.  Paul started passing out and getting weaker.  We were scared.  I called the lady back at MDA and asked if we could go to a different doctor.  She had our records and told us Dr. Foster could help us, I did not realize that.  She got us in to Dr. Foster, he did not take all the blood and Paul started doing better right away.  God is awesome.

 

 One of our sons got in with the wrong crowds and things started going bad for him and us.  God worked another miracle, in an odd way.  Someone gave him something bad, and he lost it two days before our daughter got married.  It scared Darrell straight.  He became a completely different person, and we had our son back again.  About eight months later Darrell met Michelle and she became part of our life for seventeen years.

 

Darletta met and married Bill.  After two years they had Katie, Darletta had premature labor and had to be on bedrest a long time.  Katie was a very cute and smart baby.  She knew her ABC’s before she was two. 

 

A year and seven months later they had Alex.  Alex was born very sick and got worse.  He was transferred to the hospital in Odessa.  Many prayers were offered for him.  Finally he started doing better.  He was over a week old before Darletta could hold him.  He made a full recovery, another great blessing.

 

For years we had a hard time paying our bills and covering our checks.  Dave was so kind to people and would not charge them as much as he should.  We kept getting further in debt.  One day God sent a man to the shop to see if we would be interested in selling the shop.  We told him if the price was right we would.  We told him what we wanted and he said he did not see a problem with that amount.  He bought the shop and we paid all our bills and had money left. 

 

About this time I developed a rare muscle disease.  My knees and my shoulders were giving me a lot of problems.  Dave had to help me dress and get out of bed.  We went to the doctor, but I did not get any better.  We went to chiropractors, acupuncture, and tried every health food anyone mentioned.  I kept getting worse.  Finally it came to me that I needed to go to Scott and White. I wanted to wait until Mike and Erin got married before I went because I was afraid they would put me in the hospital and I would miss the wedding. After they got married I went and they ran test for four days.  They said nothing showed up, but there was a rare muscle disease that there was no test to see if that was what was wrong.  He said if it was what was wrong prednisone would take care of it.  I took prednisone that night and the next day I was a new person.  Another miracle.  Thank you God.

 

Mike met and married Erin.  She is a wonderful blessing to our family, and we could never ask for a sweeter daughter-in-law.  She is the greatest

 

Darletta became pregnant with her third child.  She went into premature labor two and a half months early.  She had to go on total bedrest.  She was very fortunate, she got paid most of her salary while she was off work.  Amber had a small hole in her heart, but that too was healed.

 

I started doing substitute teaching and realized that I wanted to help kids.  I started checking to see what I would have to do to become elementary certified.  I was told if I passed the excet exam I could teach with an emergency teaching certificate.  I passed, and tried to get a job. 
They told me I was not certified and they would not hire me with an emergency permit.  I went back to college and took all the classes I needed.  I got my teaching certificate and tried to get a job.  They had started a charter school and had taken a lot of students, and MISD had over hired that year.  The next year I had three interviews.  One was interviewing every thirty minutes.  The second one was interviewing someone already under contract, I didn’t get that.  A third one had never made it to the down town list.  I thought the interview went well.  I checked with someone else and they told me someone had been hired, and it wasn’t me.  Because of the number of Hispanic teachers they had to hire a Hispanic teacher if one applied.

 

I really felt discouraged, and I prayed and asked God if He wanted me to teach I needed His help because I could not do it.  The next day a principal from Fort Stockton called and wanted to know if I would be interested in teaching there.  I didn’t even know how far Fort Stockton was from Midland.  We set up an interview that day.  We went and it went well.  The assistant principal said he only had two questions, was I available and was I certified.  The principal told me she would let me know on Thursday.  She called and asked if I was ready to come to work on Monday.  So this was another miracle that God worked for us.

 

Before this happened Darletta, Bill and their three kids moved to Austin. Darletta got pregnant with Meagen.  She had some breathing problems when she was little, but she is good now.

 

I taught in Fort Stockton one year, but we were happy to move back to Midland.  I have had several long term sub jobs and we are living around people we love and care about.

 

In April of 2006  Michelle left Darrell and seventeen years, this was hard, but Darrell started bettering himself right away.  He bought a new pickup and started making things better in his life.

 

In October of 2006 BJ left Paul.  He had gone with her for four years and she had really taken advantage of him financially.  He worked all the time trying to pay for everything she wanted.  She dropped him when she decided he could not buy her any more things.

 

Darletta told us Thanksgiving of 2006 that she was going to leave Bill..  He had become more and more abusive and had always had an anger management problem, 

 

Paul moved to Austin in August of 2008.  Darrell moved there in November of 2008.  In March of 2009 they bought a house across the street from Darletta.  They are there in a very nice house and they have been wonderful in helping Darletta and the kids, and she has helped them.  God sees us through all our difficulties and he is so good.

 

Now it is May of 2009.  My lymph gland has been swollen for about a month and a half, The inside of my mouth is swollen, my eyes, ears, nose and mouth are all swollen.  I have just been diagnosed with lymphoma cancer.  It was a shock, but I know that God is in control and all will work out.  We have been totally overwhelmed by the love, prayers and kind words that so many people have shown to us.  We have even received wonderful gifts.   God is in control and cares.  We now have medicare to help pay the bills.  School is just out, so I am not losing sub pay and Mike and Erin are out of school and so helpful with everything.  David has done a wonderful job helping me.  Thank you God for being so good and caring for us.

 

Lila Lloyd                    May 31, 2009

 

 

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