BY HIS GRACE------WE LIVE
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace
to help in time of need.” Heb. 4:16
The goodness of God is extended to all who will come during any, time of need all which is made
possible by the cross.
I was born April 8th 1959, surprise I’m here! I have one brother who is 16 years older than me. I grew up with a father who was an alcoholic. We did go to a Sunday school. Then when I was about 5, we started going to a Pentecostal church, my Mother got saved and filled with the Holy Ghost. My mother was the first to tell me of Jesus. I would go to all the Bible schools around and take all the neighbor kids with me. I attended a Good News Club during the school year it was a little Baptist Church across the street from where we lived, when I was 8 years old that is where Jesus came into my heart. Shortly after asking the Lord into my heart I received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. My job at the church was to lead our young people’s service in praise and worship, the Pastors wife taught me to play the accordion. I would help with Sunday School or where ever I could.
As I said my Dad was an alcoholic, my Mom didn’t drive so we had to depend on him to drive us to and from church. Let me tell you talk about a test of faith; he would speed up, slow down especially on the way home from church we know God was dealing with him. There were plenty of nights we prayed ourselves to and from church, boy was the devil mad. When he wasn’t drinking he was the best of person he even built book cases and tract racks for the churches.
As a teenager around 17 I got away from the church little by little, looking at man and not God. This is
why we need to stay in the word and in prayer at all times man will almost always fail us, God never fails.
At 17 I was married, the marriage didn’t last long approximate 5 years. My ex-husband was abusive physically, mentally, even rape. He was even abusive to my parents. One evening we were going to eat with my parents he took his pickup truck, of course only three would fit in the front seat so I sat in the back of the truck on the wheel well I ask him to shut the tail gate but he didn’t. I soon learned why we went around a corner and he tried his best to throw me out of the back of the truck I was hanging onto the hinge of the tail gate. I knew then God still had his hand on me, I also knew at that point if I wanted to live I best get out of that marriage. (A few years later he shot his self in the stomach and shortly after he came out of that he hired someone to kill his girlfriend). Which he didn't
succeed.
From that point I was in and out of church. My dad and I bought a house together a few months later my dad took sick first one operation then another he ended up having his leg amputated.
I actually met my husband in 1982, the love of my life. His father passed away in August of 1984, my dad passed away in July of 1985. In 1984 my cousin was killed by a drunk driver she got out of her car to get a kitten out of the road. We got married in February of 1986, our first beautiful baby girl was born September 3rd. Before she was born I had called my cousin to ask if any of her girls were going to use their sister’s name for their kids if not could I name my daughter after her and of course my cousin was delighted, so our beautiful baby became Kelly Diane. In 1988 we started to build our house; we completed it in January of 1989 doing a lot of the work ourselves.
Fall of 1989 had a miscarriage, shortly after that knee surgery. In 1991 we were blessed with our
second beautiful baby girl which we named on the way to the hospital, Lindsey Nacole she came a month early. She was born August 12th. Lindsey weighted 5lbs 6 ½ oz’s. She came home for a day, five different formulas and Pedialite in one day. She could still keep nothing down she was fading before our very eyes. My husband had to go out of town for a meeting a neighbor took me into the Doctors.
This happen to be a Doctor on call for our regular Doctor he picked up an obstruction in her stomach right away. Lindsey was flown to the University of
Maryland two days after she was born, that was scary watching the helicopter take off and I couldn’t go with her. We get to Baltimore and they gave us the wrong directions to the hospital, we were at the wrong hospital , we had a friend with us and she had them call around to the other hospitals to find out where Lindsey was, originally university of Maryland said they did not have her registered. Finally they found out she was at university of Maryland hospital.
By the time we are gotten there they had her hooked up to all kinds of wires, even her feet were tied to little boards with wires running in her feet. The test they had done wasn’t real clear the Doctors weren’t sure what they would find when they opened her up on Friday the day of surgery she was down to 3lbs l0 oz’s what a long day. There was a lot of prayer that day from everywhere.
God brought her through the surgery there were days that things were touch and go but I knew when God brought her through the surgery He was going to bring her the rest of the way.
She spent 35 days at the hospital, she came home weighting 4lbs 10ozs and with a feeding tube but praise God we never had to use the feeding tube, and thank God she didn’t have to wear a bag. Lindsey is a beautiful healthy young lady today. I praise God for her health.
In August of 1998 we bought a Flower Shop. Which I believe this was a step God wanted me to take at the time not realizing why. In spring of 1999 our marriage started to fall apart. Spring of 2000 my Mother and Uncle was in the hospital, same day Mother with colon cancer and Uncle with prostate cancer. After a few days Uncle came home, Mother was there for a week. So I ran back and forth between the two. In June of 2001 I was laid off from
my Job of 23 years. I went to the flower shop full time for a year, then I had a job offer at an insurance company and I worked there for a year to it began to be too much, trying to keep the flower shop going also. In March of 2002 things at home took a turn for the worse and my husband and I decided to separate in May of 2002. November of 2002 to February of 2003 my youngest daughter had lost 34 lbs. From the devastation she had turned to anorexia (which a lot of girls will do when they think they can’t control their troubles, they think they can control this until it controls them). In May of 2003 I quit my job at the insurance company I felt God was leading me to do this. It was hard for me to give up the little money I was making. The first part of June my youngest started to eat again, her sister had told her she could not ride in the front seat of her car until she ate a cheeseburger. She came running into the flower shop mommy I got to ride in the front seat of sissy’s car. Then two weeks later my life shifted again the bomb had exploded my oldest had lost her life in an automobile accident on June 14th 2003 at 10:12 pm. Kelly had called me to tell me she had been in a fender bender and her car would not start, the phone was a little fuzzy all of a sudden I heard screams and a crash. Kel always thought I could fix everything for her it didn’t matter if it was a spat with someone at school or a boyfriend mom could fix it. (For some reason she had that conception) unfortunately that night I could fix nothing I didn’t even have answers. My husband happen to be at the house that night so we started to drive in that general direction, at that point someone had called my cell phone to tell me that there had been a
terrible accident and they could not get a pulse, I told her to tell Kel to hold on I was on my way, three minutes later she called back to say she was gone. We drove the rest of the way to the hospital knowing that she was gone and praying there was some mistake, called the other girls families. You would think with such a tragedy the police and hospital staff would be compassionate on the contrary they handed me her jewelry saying she was only 16 what is she doing here. The hospital chaplain just kind of kept walking circles around us. I had to be the first to say she’s in a better place, I really think they were waiting on me to come unglued but you see I prayed the whole way there Lord please keep me calm I need to know what happened. The police tried to tell us both accidents happened at the same time until we told them she was alive and well after the first accident I was on the phone with her and heard the screams
and crash. She had passed a taxi cab someone came up on her and she went to get back over and the taxi cab driver sped up on her, the only damage to her car from that accident was a dent in her rear corner panel. When her car was stopped along the road at the jersey wall, a guy whom worked for the police department was not paying attention and drove through kel’s driver’s door killing Kelly instantly. The impact drove Kelly into her best friend breaking her collar bone and putting an imprint of her watch in her friend’s leg for like a month. The gal in the back seat suffered some cuts. I try not to dwell on the accident, sometimes I relive it and I wasn’t there, just on the phone to hear the scream and the crash. I know these girls relive it too. It was a king cab four wheel drive Silverado that went through her drivers’ door. The driver of the truck was speeding doing 67 in a 55 mile zone. While on our way to the hospital we kept hearing this hello, hello, it was dark and no light were on the cell phones. I finally figured out it was coming from my cell phone it was my cousin she had heard Kurt tell the officer at the scene of the accident that was his daughter who was killed in that wreck and asking for directions to the hospital. (I had looked for my cousin’s number the week before and could not find it in my phone; she was the first to know) At the hospital I had to tell Kel’s friends she did not make it. God really kept me in his Grace. In the meantime my mother and Lindsey kept calling and asking how Kel was I kept telling them I hadn’t seen her yet, which I hadn’t, I had to turn my phone off. In order for us to see Kelly we had to demand, I wasn’t leaving that hospital until I did. The coroner was ok with not sending her for an autopsy but the police department wanted one, of course they thought they would find drug or alcohol, but they found neither. Kelly would have been a in a vegetative state if she would have lived. Kelly loved life too much for that. On the way home I worried that Lindsey would go back to not eating. Thank God she that was not the case. We called my cousin so she could meet us at the house I had no idea how anyone would handle everything. I didn’t know what I was doing, never
handled anything like this before. Of course I am sure when my mother saw my cousin she knew, I had to wake Lindsey up and tell her, her sister went to heaven. I really did not know how or what to tell her. I was in a state of shock myself. In the hours to follow we made many phone calls, some people didn’t believe us. We had gotten back home like 4:00 in the morning started by calling my brother in Florida. By dawn my cousin had taken me in to tell my Uncle, he I believe took it harder at the point than anyone, Kel was his baby girl. My Uncle was like a Grandfather to both girls. Of course the girls never meet either grandfather. Early morning many people had started to call and by afternoon my house was flooded with people and food. There was so much kindness including some of my customers from the flower shop. Even our Doctors, Dentist and our veterinarian, had called. My brother came home later that evening, a lot of Kel’s friends came, and they helped make arrangements for pall bearers and picked out clothes for her and decided who was singing at the funeral. (I am not sure what we would have done if it weren’t for Kel’s friends.) This was on Sunday I believe this one day lasted forever. I didn’t go to bed for two nights. I probably didn’t sleep when I did go to bed. The following day was Monday the day to go to the funeral home, I never had to handle anything like this before, picking out the casket, the cards, the verse for on the cards, the viewing times and funeral time, the obituary all of these dreadful things. When we were going over the obituary it came to me to put at the end of the obituary “Hey Guys I’m Waiting for You” (you see Kel’s friends were her life and I know someday she will want all of them with her) We later also had this put on her stone, hopefully it will make the kids think when they visit the grave. Of course we had a few people say that was morbid but these are the people that don’t realize with God there is eternal life. Two of my close pastor friends preached Kel’s funeral, her cousin said a few words and sang I Can only Imagine (which has been named Kel’s song). Which, a year later David did a cd in her memory. The viewing was the largest they had ever had there were between 800 and 1,000 people there. We stood in front of the casket from about 12:30 till the last person went the line at 11:20pm. ,with about an hour break. I was so numb it didn’t matter the only thing I knew I couldn’t set, I would have been done for. People had come from all over Kel had went to Europe two summers before that and some of those people she went with lived a few hours away but
they came for the viewing she had friends all over that we didn’t even know, she made such an impact on a lot of lives. It rained that evening there were people that never came into the viewing, they couldn’t find place to park. The day of Kel’s accident, I didn’t really want her to go that evening and she told me what a good driver she was and I told her that you always had to look out for the other people. So we tossed the idea around and she said mom you know what you always say and I am like what do I say, sometimes I say a lot she said you always say if it is your time to go, it’s your time to go. She also told me that day to never sell the flower shop until I make her wedding flowers, so I made her casket spray, lavender roses and an angel. The actual day of the funeral is kind of fuzzy there were flowers and people everywhere. I had asked David to sing What a Day That will be, while singing that I could only think it couldn’t come soon enough. At the reception we had a young man ask to talk to David he gave his life to the Lord, I knew then that this tragedy was not in vain. I had told David I felt like teenagers was his calling and I felt that one of Kel’s friends needed something. Going back home was hard, I used to go in and turn the TV on and the radio for noise, I probably did this for a year. Kel always had 2 or 3 things going at one time. It was just as hard going back to the flower shop she had worked hand in hand with me there, she was my right arm. No matter when something went wrong it didn’t matter what, she always said it will be ok mom. I believe God had warned me three times, sometimes we don’t listen or we think it means something else. The first time was one morning I was on my way to the flower shop and I said God something has to be done about this strife I am going through and just as if someone was setting in the passenger seat a strong voice said not now someone is going to die. I pondered this for a while and figured I had older relatives and kind of blew it off.
Christmas of 2002 I set the dinner table even took a picture of it stood at the end of the table with a chill thinking who is not going to be here next year.
The day of Kelly’s accident when she left the flower shop I went back to the bathroom and the same voice I had heard before said Kelly is going to die. I thought how could a mother think such a thing. When the call came that evening from Kelly I knew then God had been warning me. I think this is what had helped to keep me calm it was as if I kind of knew this, it’s hard to explain. After looking back that day, when Kel left the shop she left out the back door, walking backwards and there was a ray of light that had shown on her, we are on the bottom floor and there is no way sunlight can come in from the ceiling like it had shown on her that day. Maybe this was a fourth warning.
I had asked God to show me if Kelly had gone to heaven this bothered me so bad. Shortly after I don’t know if it was a dream a vision or what you want to say. Kelly came in to the office at home and say hi mom as usual all happy, there were pictures of the grave lying there from her birthday (which in reality I did not take pictures) but anyway I said oh honey I don’t want you to see these and she said mom don’t
worry I am so happy and I looked up at her there was such a glow on her face and not a blemish one. She looked and me and smiled and said I have to go, I love you and outside waiting on her was this big bald headed man standing there with his arms crossed, and a helicopter or airplane sitting in the back yard. Then she was gone again. This gave me such peace and since then I have been prophesied over that deep in my mind I worry about that, but God says not to worry Kelly is safe. I had a friend actually ask me if I thought Kelly was in heaven. I was able to say matter of fact God showed me, and went on to explain.
In the months and the three years to follow I dealt with the police, lawyers. Court trials and a few lawsuits. They were trying to put the blame on Kelly because she was only 16. The driver of the truck had a black box in his truck and showed he was going 67 in a 55 speed limit range; he didn’t brake till two seconds before the air bags employed. He never admitted hitting her and never said he was sorry, since he was employed by the police department as a dispatcher he got nothing, not even
a slap on the hand. They covered everyway they knew possible and whenever we had to go there for a court trial treated us like we were nothing. They even tried to hide his truck, but the gentleman where Kelly’s car was, was kind enough to tell us where he thought it was, they were trying to get to the black box before the lawyers did. We even had the taxi driver come in the day before the three years and tried to say he couldn’t use his thumb to open a can, but thank God we didn’t have to deal with that, it was the fact of them putting us through something else. I knew I had to forgive him, only by God’s grace this was even possible. This was very hard he took my baby.
In the days and months to come Kelly’s friends stood by us coming to see us a phone call out of the blue, they have no idea what this meant and what this still means today. They include us in their family functions, weddings, birthdays, their children’s programs and birthdays, God picked Kelly’s friends for her, because all of them have been heaven sent.
The May after Kelly’s accident we had a memorial service at the church for her. Kel’s cousin David had
a wonderful testimony to give to all the young people how God brought him out of the rut of drugs and what God had done in his life. David of course sang I can only imagine. Some of her friends sang, some wrote poems, some just paid their respect. David had mentioned that no one should leave the church without knowing Jesus as their personal Savior, he used Kelly and her friends as an example, they did not expect the unexpected the night of, June 14th 2003. You see we don’t know when and where our last breath will be; we need to always be ready to meet our Lord and Savior. A young man wrote a song about Kelly, he sang his song at the beginning of the service. As he sang his song for Kel his sister was killed in a car accident. Graduation was June 10th 2004, only to see a flower arrangement in Kelly’s chair. This was tough this was one of Kel’s goals that she was anxious to accomplish. Also, seeing the other parents and their children together was heart wrenching, they were able to leave and celebrate with their children. We handed out white roses in her honor. By God s grace we got though one more time. After graduation it seemed as though another piece of Kelly was gone.
We had set up a scholarship in Kelly’s name, all the graduating seniors at Clear Spring High School are asked to write an essay on “What Life Means to Me”, we have had a good response although some have no clue, there are some that do know who God is and what they are to do with life. Clear Spring High School had started to put together a memorial garden.
One of Kelly’s goals for her senior year was to have the memorial garden at school finished. The FFA followed through on this and finished it.
We were invited to the ribbon cutting ceremony and had the honor of cutting the ribbon. Two of Kelly’s
friends sang “I can only imagine”, in Kelly’s honor. They read the list of names off that would go in the garden and our cousin was on that list, (the girl I had
named Kelly after).
The first of holidays, birthdays, vacations are the worse although, there is always an empty spot
whether it be at the table or in the car. No holiday or vacation is ever the same. Only by God’s Grace!
On the year anniversary of her death, we had a cookout for Kelly’s friends. Her friends came to spend time with us, and shared many memories with us.
We always try to do something as a family on this day. During the day we had a visitor who wanted to
know if we were the Peachers. This was the EMT who had held Kelly that night. He had called his brother and told him of the accident, his brother’s reply was oh my what a Father’s Day present. (You see the accident happened the night before Father’s day). On father’s day evening this EMT’s niece was here and was in an accident and lost her life. Kelly was from Clear spring and lost her life in Cumberland Md., the other young lady was from Cumberland and lost her life close to my flower shop, and one of Kel’s friends who is an EMT was on that call.
We eventually started a Bible study on Sunday nights at our house, we would fix dinner for the kids and we would have a Bible study. We did this for about a year, the church I had been attending built a new sanctuary so I started going to church on Sunday nights. We hope we planted some seeds for those who did not or never attended a church.
Approximately a year and a half after Kelly’s accident reality set in for my younger daughter. She screamed and yelled at us, and said why you try to keep things normal sissy is never coming back. She became involved in the Gothic clothing. I know she was looking to find herself, all the devastation had worked on her. She was only 11 when Kelly died. We prayed for her daily, it hurt me so bad to see my baby girl in such grief and dismay. My girls were my life I had already lost one and could not bear losing my baby to Satan. Thank God he came upon the scene and my beautiful baby girl is herself again. All of these tragedies took its toll on all of us. We all may not be our happy go lucky self’s, our personalities may have changed and defiantly our outlook on life has changed. God’s grace is sufficient and He is getting us though. Notice I said getting us through, you see we are human too and there are bad days for all of us. I just start praying
and saying Lord I can’t handle this on my own, I need your help. This is what I have done from the day of Kelly’s accident. Thank God for his grace and his mercy. I always have people say to me “How do you do it”. My answer is always by God’s grace. I would not be here today without God’s Grace.
“And he said unto me My Grace is sufficient for you for My Strength is made perfect in weakness. Most
gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me;
11 Corinthians 12: 9
Grace is really the goodness of God carried out by the only spirit, we are all weak and need to learn to
solely depend on God.
The flower shop has become my ministry ground I have been there 11 ½ years and have not drawn a paycheck yet. I have meant many people and have become friends with many. The day of Kelly’s accident a mother, grandmother and sister had come into the shop to get a rose for their son’s grave. I believe he was 17. Kelly fixed up the roses for them and when they left I said to her, it that would be you or your sister I’m not sure what I would do. (By God’s Grace I am still here.) My customers loved Kelly too, these people have not been back to the shop, I have another lady who bought some things for gifts that day, she still has them, and she kept them because Kelly waited on her. My cousin’s birthday is June 14th, Kelly had put a gift together for her, one thing was a candle she burns it every year for Kelly. Kelly had a special gift in working with people. She left a lasting impression on many people, it shows in her friends that still come to see us and keep in touch with us.
About a year after Kelly’s accident there was a girl in Georgia that had lost her life at 21. We had a good many funeral pieces for her at the flower shop, that following weekend her mother had come in to tell us how beautiful everything was, (actually God sent her in) I told her I was sorry and she would be in my prayers I knew how she felt, I had also lost my daughter. From this stemmed a friendship of encouragement to each other. There are a few others like her that I receive notes from on a regular basis. One day at the shop I had a lady call in for flowers, she was very upset about her job people were picking on her, I told her there was one she could turn to that would never fail her. The following Saturday she came in to meet the person she had spoken with on the phone, she was to return to work on Monday. I told her to tell Jesus come and walk through those doors with her. She called me on Monday morning and said Donna Jesus not only walked thought the doors of this office with me, He came into my heart yesterday. Praise God! She had gone to Church. A gentleman came into the shop one day and needed prayer he was going to lose his business, house and everything God took care of him, and he is a successful business man today.
Had a lady working for me didn’t want anything to do with God, didn’t believe in Hell. She had gotten sick
and sent a friend in the shop to tell me to pray. God worked it out that I got to talk to her before she was moved to another hospital. The day before the
hospital had told her and her husband that the insurance okayed her to go to another hospital, however the next morning they told them there was a problem with the insurance, after I was there for about 5 minutes the nurse told them that the insurance company did approve them see God has ways of working things out. She accepted the Lord into her heart the day. Later her son was in a wreck
and she called on the way to the hospital for prayer, he’s fine today. Another employee had cancer, she went back for a checkup and they found a spot, I told her we were not excepting that, that God was going to heal her, we prayed and they did many more tests and could find nothing. Isn’t God Good!! There are many others that have come in for prayer, or even in conversation I or one of my employees will not say we will pray for you. Seems to the place people come when they are hurting, there are so many hurting people out there, sometimes just a
smile or a little word of encouragement is all they need. If I could say I have a favorite story it would be what I call the liver story. There was a gentlemen
that went to a church I was attending at the time he needed a liver, his time was limited. My nephew was at this church the Sunday before and told him “don’t worry buddy God is going to take care of you”. The following Wednesday a gal from Falling Waters, West Virginia came in to my shop with her Uncle and her father had died. They had come in to order flowers her Uncle told me how proud of her; he was because she had donated her Dad’s organs. So I told her I was proud of her too, she was 18 and next of kin so she had to handle everything. I told her how this guy at our church needed a liver and he had children. She told me how they had ask her if she knew anyone, (I thought you had to be on the national list) so she took this gentleman’s name. I didn’t hear anything else so I figured it was too late, the only person I told was my husband and he said wouldn’t that be cool and I said that would be a miracle of God. On the following Saturday I received a phone call from the pastor’s sister, asking if I had heard the news, that this person had received a liver. The tears started rolling and I started to shout. (People in the shop thought I lost it) This gentleman had received two false alarms prior to this one liver wasn’t good; the other was the wrong size. It was approximately 2 weeks later and he was back in church praying his guitar. The Sunday before the surgery he was as green as green can be. Praise God this is defiantly a miracle of God. Had to be perfect match in order for the liver to take, they operated on Friday and by Saturday evening his natural color came back. This young lady passed other flower shops on the way; God led her to our flower shop. I knew of this young lady, but had not seen her since she was about 6 years old. God is good!!! It was really neat when the families meet for the first time at our church. The father was glad to see a part of his son still living. I also had an employee give her heart to the Lord in the flower shop, a preacher friend of mine had stop to visit and prayed with us. About a month later I was in charge of a special service at church, her husband and she came and they came the following week, her husband gave her heart to God and she rededicated her heart to the Lord. Seven months later the devil attached her husband’s health; they applied for assistance and had a very hard time. Two of my doctors had treated him free. (This is a miracle from God) I watched God Bless them and give them
enough to get by each time it seemed there was no way. People gave money, food, paid for medicine etc. The Bible tells us that we must have faith, even faith the size of a mustard seed. Matthew 17:20 Childlike faith is all we need. Though all the valleys God had been so awesome, as the song writer says He is God on the mountain and he is God in the valley. We need to learn to praise and worship him even in the valleys. Remember the footprints in the sand verse He is always there to carry us through no matter the circumstance or what we have done in life.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8
Jesus never changes, He is always there for us, it is us who walk away from him. The same miracles He
performed when He walked on earth, He can and will perform today. The Bible says in Hebrews 13:5 Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us.
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace
to help in time of need.” Heb. 4:16
The goodness of God is extended to all who will come during any, time of need all which is made
possible by the cross.
I was born April 8th 1959, surprise I’m here! I have one brother who is 16 years older than me. I grew up with a father who was an alcoholic. We did go to a Sunday school. Then when I was about 5, we started going to a Pentecostal church, my Mother got saved and filled with the Holy Ghost. My mother was the first to tell me of Jesus. I would go to all the Bible schools around and take all the neighbor kids with me. I attended a Good News Club during the school year it was a little Baptist Church across the street from where we lived, when I was 8 years old that is where Jesus came into my heart. Shortly after asking the Lord into my heart I received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. My job at the church was to lead our young people’s service in praise and worship, the Pastors wife taught me to play the accordion. I would help with Sunday School or where ever I could.
As I said my Dad was an alcoholic, my Mom didn’t drive so we had to depend on him to drive us to and from church. Let me tell you talk about a test of faith; he would speed up, slow down especially on the way home from church we know God was dealing with him. There were plenty of nights we prayed ourselves to and from church, boy was the devil mad. When he wasn’t drinking he was the best of person he even built book cases and tract racks for the churches.
As a teenager around 17 I got away from the church little by little, looking at man and not God. This is
why we need to stay in the word and in prayer at all times man will almost always fail us, God never fails.
At 17 I was married, the marriage didn’t last long approximate 5 years. My ex-husband was abusive physically, mentally, even rape. He was even abusive to my parents. One evening we were going to eat with my parents he took his pickup truck, of course only three would fit in the front seat so I sat in the back of the truck on the wheel well I ask him to shut the tail gate but he didn’t. I soon learned why we went around a corner and he tried his best to throw me out of the back of the truck I was hanging onto the hinge of the tail gate. I knew then God still had his hand on me, I also knew at that point if I wanted to live I best get out of that marriage. (A few years later he shot his self in the stomach and shortly after he came out of that he hired someone to kill his girlfriend). Which he didn't
succeed.
From that point I was in and out of church. My dad and I bought a house together a few months later my dad took sick first one operation then another he ended up having his leg amputated.
I actually met my husband in 1982, the love of my life. His father passed away in August of 1984, my dad passed away in July of 1985. In 1984 my cousin was killed by a drunk driver she got out of her car to get a kitten out of the road. We got married in February of 1986, our first beautiful baby girl was born September 3rd. Before she was born I had called my cousin to ask if any of her girls were going to use their sister’s name for their kids if not could I name my daughter after her and of course my cousin was delighted, so our beautiful baby became Kelly Diane. In 1988 we started to build our house; we completed it in January of 1989 doing a lot of the work ourselves.
Fall of 1989 had a miscarriage, shortly after that knee surgery. In 1991 we were blessed with our
second beautiful baby girl which we named on the way to the hospital, Lindsey Nacole she came a month early. She was born August 12th. Lindsey weighted 5lbs 6 ½ oz’s. She came home for a day, five different formulas and Pedialite in one day. She could still keep nothing down she was fading before our very eyes. My husband had to go out of town for a meeting a neighbor took me into the Doctors.
This happen to be a Doctor on call for our regular Doctor he picked up an obstruction in her stomach right away. Lindsey was flown to the University of
Maryland two days after she was born, that was scary watching the helicopter take off and I couldn’t go with her. We get to Baltimore and they gave us the wrong directions to the hospital, we were at the wrong hospital , we had a friend with us and she had them call around to the other hospitals to find out where Lindsey was, originally university of Maryland said they did not have her registered. Finally they found out she was at university of Maryland hospital.
By the time we are gotten there they had her hooked up to all kinds of wires, even her feet were tied to little boards with wires running in her feet. The test they had done wasn’t real clear the Doctors weren’t sure what they would find when they opened her up on Friday the day of surgery she was down to 3lbs l0 oz’s what a long day. There was a lot of prayer that day from everywhere.
God brought her through the surgery there were days that things were touch and go but I knew when God brought her through the surgery He was going to bring her the rest of the way.
She spent 35 days at the hospital, she came home weighting 4lbs 10ozs and with a feeding tube but praise God we never had to use the feeding tube, and thank God she didn’t have to wear a bag. Lindsey is a beautiful healthy young lady today. I praise God for her health.
In August of 1998 we bought a Flower Shop. Which I believe this was a step God wanted me to take at the time not realizing why. In spring of 1999 our marriage started to fall apart. Spring of 2000 my Mother and Uncle was in the hospital, same day Mother with colon cancer and Uncle with prostate cancer. After a few days Uncle came home, Mother was there for a week. So I ran back and forth between the two. In June of 2001 I was laid off from
my Job of 23 years. I went to the flower shop full time for a year, then I had a job offer at an insurance company and I worked there for a year to it began to be too much, trying to keep the flower shop going also. In March of 2002 things at home took a turn for the worse and my husband and I decided to separate in May of 2002. November of 2002 to February of 2003 my youngest daughter had lost 34 lbs. From the devastation she had turned to anorexia (which a lot of girls will do when they think they can’t control their troubles, they think they can control this until it controls them). In May of 2003 I quit my job at the insurance company I felt God was leading me to do this. It was hard for me to give up the little money I was making. The first part of June my youngest started to eat again, her sister had told her she could not ride in the front seat of her car until she ate a cheeseburger. She came running into the flower shop mommy I got to ride in the front seat of sissy’s car. Then two weeks later my life shifted again the bomb had exploded my oldest had lost her life in an automobile accident on June 14th 2003 at 10:12 pm. Kelly had called me to tell me she had been in a fender bender and her car would not start, the phone was a little fuzzy all of a sudden I heard screams and a crash. Kel always thought I could fix everything for her it didn’t matter if it was a spat with someone at school or a boyfriend mom could fix it. (For some reason she had that conception) unfortunately that night I could fix nothing I didn’t even have answers. My husband happen to be at the house that night so we started to drive in that general direction, at that point someone had called my cell phone to tell me that there had been a
terrible accident and they could not get a pulse, I told her to tell Kel to hold on I was on my way, three minutes later she called back to say she was gone. We drove the rest of the way to the hospital knowing that she was gone and praying there was some mistake, called the other girls families. You would think with such a tragedy the police and hospital staff would be compassionate on the contrary they handed me her jewelry saying she was only 16 what is she doing here. The hospital chaplain just kind of kept walking circles around us. I had to be the first to say she’s in a better place, I really think they were waiting on me to come unglued but you see I prayed the whole way there Lord please keep me calm I need to know what happened. The police tried to tell us both accidents happened at the same time until we told them she was alive and well after the first accident I was on the phone with her and heard the screams
and crash. She had passed a taxi cab someone came up on her and she went to get back over and the taxi cab driver sped up on her, the only damage to her car from that accident was a dent in her rear corner panel. When her car was stopped along the road at the jersey wall, a guy whom worked for the police department was not paying attention and drove through kel’s driver’s door killing Kelly instantly. The impact drove Kelly into her best friend breaking her collar bone and putting an imprint of her watch in her friend’s leg for like a month. The gal in the back seat suffered some cuts. I try not to dwell on the accident, sometimes I relive it and I wasn’t there, just on the phone to hear the scream and the crash. I know these girls relive it too. It was a king cab four wheel drive Silverado that went through her drivers’ door. The driver of the truck was speeding doing 67 in a 55 mile zone. While on our way to the hospital we kept hearing this hello, hello, it was dark and no light were on the cell phones. I finally figured out it was coming from my cell phone it was my cousin she had heard Kurt tell the officer at the scene of the accident that was his daughter who was killed in that wreck and asking for directions to the hospital. (I had looked for my cousin’s number the week before and could not find it in my phone; she was the first to know) At the hospital I had to tell Kel’s friends she did not make it. God really kept me in his Grace. In the meantime my mother and Lindsey kept calling and asking how Kel was I kept telling them I hadn’t seen her yet, which I hadn’t, I had to turn my phone off. In order for us to see Kelly we had to demand, I wasn’t leaving that hospital until I did. The coroner was ok with not sending her for an autopsy but the police department wanted one, of course they thought they would find drug or alcohol, but they found neither. Kelly would have been a in a vegetative state if she would have lived. Kelly loved life too much for that. On the way home I worried that Lindsey would go back to not eating. Thank God she that was not the case. We called my cousin so she could meet us at the house I had no idea how anyone would handle everything. I didn’t know what I was doing, never
handled anything like this before. Of course I am sure when my mother saw my cousin she knew, I had to wake Lindsey up and tell her, her sister went to heaven. I really did not know how or what to tell her. I was in a state of shock myself. In the hours to follow we made many phone calls, some people didn’t believe us. We had gotten back home like 4:00 in the morning started by calling my brother in Florida. By dawn my cousin had taken me in to tell my Uncle, he I believe took it harder at the point than anyone, Kel was his baby girl. My Uncle was like a Grandfather to both girls. Of course the girls never meet either grandfather. Early morning many people had started to call and by afternoon my house was flooded with people and food. There was so much kindness including some of my customers from the flower shop. Even our Doctors, Dentist and our veterinarian, had called. My brother came home later that evening, a lot of Kel’s friends came, and they helped make arrangements for pall bearers and picked out clothes for her and decided who was singing at the funeral. (I am not sure what we would have done if it weren’t for Kel’s friends.) This was on Sunday I believe this one day lasted forever. I didn’t go to bed for two nights. I probably didn’t sleep when I did go to bed. The following day was Monday the day to go to the funeral home, I never had to handle anything like this before, picking out the casket, the cards, the verse for on the cards, the viewing times and funeral time, the obituary all of these dreadful things. When we were going over the obituary it came to me to put at the end of the obituary “Hey Guys I’m Waiting for You” (you see Kel’s friends were her life and I know someday she will want all of them with her) We later also had this put on her stone, hopefully it will make the kids think when they visit the grave. Of course we had a few people say that was morbid but these are the people that don’t realize with God there is eternal life. Two of my close pastor friends preached Kel’s funeral, her cousin said a few words and sang I Can only Imagine (which has been named Kel’s song). Which, a year later David did a cd in her memory. The viewing was the largest they had ever had there were between 800 and 1,000 people there. We stood in front of the casket from about 12:30 till the last person went the line at 11:20pm. ,with about an hour break. I was so numb it didn’t matter the only thing I knew I couldn’t set, I would have been done for. People had come from all over Kel had went to Europe two summers before that and some of those people she went with lived a few hours away but
they came for the viewing she had friends all over that we didn’t even know, she made such an impact on a lot of lives. It rained that evening there were people that never came into the viewing, they couldn’t find place to park. The day of Kel’s accident, I didn’t really want her to go that evening and she told me what a good driver she was and I told her that you always had to look out for the other people. So we tossed the idea around and she said mom you know what you always say and I am like what do I say, sometimes I say a lot she said you always say if it is your time to go, it’s your time to go. She also told me that day to never sell the flower shop until I make her wedding flowers, so I made her casket spray, lavender roses and an angel. The actual day of the funeral is kind of fuzzy there were flowers and people everywhere. I had asked David to sing What a Day That will be, while singing that I could only think it couldn’t come soon enough. At the reception we had a young man ask to talk to David he gave his life to the Lord, I knew then that this tragedy was not in vain. I had told David I felt like teenagers was his calling and I felt that one of Kel’s friends needed something. Going back home was hard, I used to go in and turn the TV on and the radio for noise, I probably did this for a year. Kel always had 2 or 3 things going at one time. It was just as hard going back to the flower shop she had worked hand in hand with me there, she was my right arm. No matter when something went wrong it didn’t matter what, she always said it will be ok mom. I believe God had warned me three times, sometimes we don’t listen or we think it means something else. The first time was one morning I was on my way to the flower shop and I said God something has to be done about this strife I am going through and just as if someone was setting in the passenger seat a strong voice said not now someone is going to die. I pondered this for a while and figured I had older relatives and kind of blew it off.
Christmas of 2002 I set the dinner table even took a picture of it stood at the end of the table with a chill thinking who is not going to be here next year.
The day of Kelly’s accident when she left the flower shop I went back to the bathroom and the same voice I had heard before said Kelly is going to die. I thought how could a mother think such a thing. When the call came that evening from Kelly I knew then God had been warning me. I think this is what had helped to keep me calm it was as if I kind of knew this, it’s hard to explain. After looking back that day, when Kel left the shop she left out the back door, walking backwards and there was a ray of light that had shown on her, we are on the bottom floor and there is no way sunlight can come in from the ceiling like it had shown on her that day. Maybe this was a fourth warning.
I had asked God to show me if Kelly had gone to heaven this bothered me so bad. Shortly after I don’t know if it was a dream a vision or what you want to say. Kelly came in to the office at home and say hi mom as usual all happy, there were pictures of the grave lying there from her birthday (which in reality I did not take pictures) but anyway I said oh honey I don’t want you to see these and she said mom don’t
worry I am so happy and I looked up at her there was such a glow on her face and not a blemish one. She looked and me and smiled and said I have to go, I love you and outside waiting on her was this big bald headed man standing there with his arms crossed, and a helicopter or airplane sitting in the back yard. Then she was gone again. This gave me such peace and since then I have been prophesied over that deep in my mind I worry about that, but God says not to worry Kelly is safe. I had a friend actually ask me if I thought Kelly was in heaven. I was able to say matter of fact God showed me, and went on to explain.
In the months and the three years to follow I dealt with the police, lawyers. Court trials and a few lawsuits. They were trying to put the blame on Kelly because she was only 16. The driver of the truck had a black box in his truck and showed he was going 67 in a 55 speed limit range; he didn’t brake till two seconds before the air bags employed. He never admitted hitting her and never said he was sorry, since he was employed by the police department as a dispatcher he got nothing, not even
a slap on the hand. They covered everyway they knew possible and whenever we had to go there for a court trial treated us like we were nothing. They even tried to hide his truck, but the gentleman where Kelly’s car was, was kind enough to tell us where he thought it was, they were trying to get to the black box before the lawyers did. We even had the taxi driver come in the day before the three years and tried to say he couldn’t use his thumb to open a can, but thank God we didn’t have to deal with that, it was the fact of them putting us through something else. I knew I had to forgive him, only by God’s grace this was even possible. This was very hard he took my baby.
In the days and months to come Kelly’s friends stood by us coming to see us a phone call out of the blue, they have no idea what this meant and what this still means today. They include us in their family functions, weddings, birthdays, their children’s programs and birthdays, God picked Kelly’s friends for her, because all of them have been heaven sent.
The May after Kelly’s accident we had a memorial service at the church for her. Kel’s cousin David had
a wonderful testimony to give to all the young people how God brought him out of the rut of drugs and what God had done in his life. David of course sang I can only imagine. Some of her friends sang, some wrote poems, some just paid their respect. David had mentioned that no one should leave the church without knowing Jesus as their personal Savior, he used Kelly and her friends as an example, they did not expect the unexpected the night of, June 14th 2003. You see we don’t know when and where our last breath will be; we need to always be ready to meet our Lord and Savior. A young man wrote a song about Kelly, he sang his song at the beginning of the service. As he sang his song for Kel his sister was killed in a car accident. Graduation was June 10th 2004, only to see a flower arrangement in Kelly’s chair. This was tough this was one of Kel’s goals that she was anxious to accomplish. Also, seeing the other parents and their children together was heart wrenching, they were able to leave and celebrate with their children. We handed out white roses in her honor. By God s grace we got though one more time. After graduation it seemed as though another piece of Kelly was gone.
We had set up a scholarship in Kelly’s name, all the graduating seniors at Clear Spring High School are asked to write an essay on “What Life Means to Me”, we have had a good response although some have no clue, there are some that do know who God is and what they are to do with life. Clear Spring High School had started to put together a memorial garden.
One of Kelly’s goals for her senior year was to have the memorial garden at school finished. The FFA followed through on this and finished it.
We were invited to the ribbon cutting ceremony and had the honor of cutting the ribbon. Two of Kelly’s
friends sang “I can only imagine”, in Kelly’s honor. They read the list of names off that would go in the garden and our cousin was on that list, (the girl I had
named Kelly after).
The first of holidays, birthdays, vacations are the worse although, there is always an empty spot
whether it be at the table or in the car. No holiday or vacation is ever the same. Only by God’s Grace!
On the year anniversary of her death, we had a cookout for Kelly’s friends. Her friends came to spend time with us, and shared many memories with us.
We always try to do something as a family on this day. During the day we had a visitor who wanted to
know if we were the Peachers. This was the EMT who had held Kelly that night. He had called his brother and told him of the accident, his brother’s reply was oh my what a Father’s Day present. (You see the accident happened the night before Father’s day). On father’s day evening this EMT’s niece was here and was in an accident and lost her life. Kelly was from Clear spring and lost her life in Cumberland Md., the other young lady was from Cumberland and lost her life close to my flower shop, and one of Kel’s friends who is an EMT was on that call.
We eventually started a Bible study on Sunday nights at our house, we would fix dinner for the kids and we would have a Bible study. We did this for about a year, the church I had been attending built a new sanctuary so I started going to church on Sunday nights. We hope we planted some seeds for those who did not or never attended a church.
Approximately a year and a half after Kelly’s accident reality set in for my younger daughter. She screamed and yelled at us, and said why you try to keep things normal sissy is never coming back. She became involved in the Gothic clothing. I know she was looking to find herself, all the devastation had worked on her. She was only 11 when Kelly died. We prayed for her daily, it hurt me so bad to see my baby girl in such grief and dismay. My girls were my life I had already lost one and could not bear losing my baby to Satan. Thank God he came upon the scene and my beautiful baby girl is herself again. All of these tragedies took its toll on all of us. We all may not be our happy go lucky self’s, our personalities may have changed and defiantly our outlook on life has changed. God’s grace is sufficient and He is getting us though. Notice I said getting us through, you see we are human too and there are bad days for all of us. I just start praying
and saying Lord I can’t handle this on my own, I need your help. This is what I have done from the day of Kelly’s accident. Thank God for his grace and his mercy. I always have people say to me “How do you do it”. My answer is always by God’s grace. I would not be here today without God’s Grace.
“And he said unto me My Grace is sufficient for you for My Strength is made perfect in weakness. Most
gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me;
11 Corinthians 12: 9
Grace is really the goodness of God carried out by the only spirit, we are all weak and need to learn to
solely depend on God.
The flower shop has become my ministry ground I have been there 11 ½ years and have not drawn a paycheck yet. I have meant many people and have become friends with many. The day of Kelly’s accident a mother, grandmother and sister had come into the shop to get a rose for their son’s grave. I believe he was 17. Kelly fixed up the roses for them and when they left I said to her, it that would be you or your sister I’m not sure what I would do. (By God’s Grace I am still here.) My customers loved Kelly too, these people have not been back to the shop, I have another lady who bought some things for gifts that day, she still has them, and she kept them because Kelly waited on her. My cousin’s birthday is June 14th, Kelly had put a gift together for her, one thing was a candle she burns it every year for Kelly. Kelly had a special gift in working with people. She left a lasting impression on many people, it shows in her friends that still come to see us and keep in touch with us.
About a year after Kelly’s accident there was a girl in Georgia that had lost her life at 21. We had a good many funeral pieces for her at the flower shop, that following weekend her mother had come in to tell us how beautiful everything was, (actually God sent her in) I told her I was sorry and she would be in my prayers I knew how she felt, I had also lost my daughter. From this stemmed a friendship of encouragement to each other. There are a few others like her that I receive notes from on a regular basis. One day at the shop I had a lady call in for flowers, she was very upset about her job people were picking on her, I told her there was one she could turn to that would never fail her. The following Saturday she came in to meet the person she had spoken with on the phone, she was to return to work on Monday. I told her to tell Jesus come and walk through those doors with her. She called me on Monday morning and said Donna Jesus not only walked thought the doors of this office with me, He came into my heart yesterday. Praise God! She had gone to Church. A gentleman came into the shop one day and needed prayer he was going to lose his business, house and everything God took care of him, and he is a successful business man today.
Had a lady working for me didn’t want anything to do with God, didn’t believe in Hell. She had gotten sick
and sent a friend in the shop to tell me to pray. God worked it out that I got to talk to her before she was moved to another hospital. The day before the
hospital had told her and her husband that the insurance okayed her to go to another hospital, however the next morning they told them there was a problem with the insurance, after I was there for about 5 minutes the nurse told them that the insurance company did approve them see God has ways of working things out. She accepted the Lord into her heart the day. Later her son was in a wreck
and she called on the way to the hospital for prayer, he’s fine today. Another employee had cancer, she went back for a checkup and they found a spot, I told her we were not excepting that, that God was going to heal her, we prayed and they did many more tests and could find nothing. Isn’t God Good!! There are many others that have come in for prayer, or even in conversation I or one of my employees will not say we will pray for you. Seems to the place people come when they are hurting, there are so many hurting people out there, sometimes just a
smile or a little word of encouragement is all they need. If I could say I have a favorite story it would be what I call the liver story. There was a gentlemen
that went to a church I was attending at the time he needed a liver, his time was limited. My nephew was at this church the Sunday before and told him “don’t worry buddy God is going to take care of you”. The following Wednesday a gal from Falling Waters, West Virginia came in to my shop with her Uncle and her father had died. They had come in to order flowers her Uncle told me how proud of her; he was because she had donated her Dad’s organs. So I told her I was proud of her too, she was 18 and next of kin so she had to handle everything. I told her how this guy at our church needed a liver and he had children. She told me how they had ask her if she knew anyone, (I thought you had to be on the national list) so she took this gentleman’s name. I didn’t hear anything else so I figured it was too late, the only person I told was my husband and he said wouldn’t that be cool and I said that would be a miracle of God. On the following Saturday I received a phone call from the pastor’s sister, asking if I had heard the news, that this person had received a liver. The tears started rolling and I started to shout. (People in the shop thought I lost it) This gentleman had received two false alarms prior to this one liver wasn’t good; the other was the wrong size. It was approximately 2 weeks later and he was back in church praying his guitar. The Sunday before the surgery he was as green as green can be. Praise God this is defiantly a miracle of God. Had to be perfect match in order for the liver to take, they operated on Friday and by Saturday evening his natural color came back. This young lady passed other flower shops on the way; God led her to our flower shop. I knew of this young lady, but had not seen her since she was about 6 years old. God is good!!! It was really neat when the families meet for the first time at our church. The father was glad to see a part of his son still living. I also had an employee give her heart to the Lord in the flower shop, a preacher friend of mine had stop to visit and prayed with us. About a month later I was in charge of a special service at church, her husband and she came and they came the following week, her husband gave her heart to God and she rededicated her heart to the Lord. Seven months later the devil attached her husband’s health; they applied for assistance and had a very hard time. Two of my doctors had treated him free. (This is a miracle from God) I watched God Bless them and give them
enough to get by each time it seemed there was no way. People gave money, food, paid for medicine etc. The Bible tells us that we must have faith, even faith the size of a mustard seed. Matthew 17:20 Childlike faith is all we need. Though all the valleys God had been so awesome, as the song writer says He is God on the mountain and he is God in the valley. We need to learn to praise and worship him even in the valleys. Remember the footprints in the sand verse He is always there to carry us through no matter the circumstance or what we have done in life.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8
Jesus never changes, He is always there for us, it is us who walk away from him. The same miracles He
performed when He walked on earth, He can and will perform today. The Bible says in Hebrews 13:5 Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us.