Chapter 24

Going Home

     The big day arrived!   Oh, I was so excited and so secretly apprehensive. Home represented salvation for me and end to my suffering,  but I was still having problems sitting up for very long.  My double-vision and dizziness episodes continued to grow more frequent, but I didn’t tell anyone. (What a dummy! Anyone who saw me, noticed me shutting one eye when I was talking to them) Most of the hospital staff, who had dealt with me during my stay, came in that last day and said goodbye.

    We knew that the trip was going to be long and arduous so that day I tried to rest as much as possible. I also cut way back on what I was eating and drinking because getting me to the bathroom in a jet, in my condition,   would be virtually impossible. Linda and Bro. Ron made ready and about 8:00PM the staff came for me and loaded me onto an ambulance gurney to take me down to the ambulance. This becomes significant later, but they did not strap me to the gurney. As I was being wheeled down to the ambulance the rest of the staff said goodbye and the trip began.

                                                                  My most vivid impression of the whole trip was being carried by people I didn’t know,   and I was always afraid that they were going to drop me. As I was loaded into the ambulance one of the nurses who had taken such good care of me traveled with me. I couldn’t see anything but it sure felt good to be out of that hospital. The trip only lasted about half an hour and then we stopped. The nurse stood up and got this puzzled look on her face. About that same time the doors were opened in the rear of the ambulance and I kind of sat up and saw there was a bunch of people waiting outside!

    About 150 people from the various churches in Zimbabwe had gathered outside of the airport to say goodbye to me. Oh boy,  was that humbling! Most I knew from the many visits that they had made. Many of them had brought their children and I didn't know them, but they had been praying for me nevertheless. One by one they entered the ambulance and shook my hand and the men and children usually gave me a big hug as well. There were many tear-filled eyes, mine included.

    After that was finished Bro. Bothwell Chikosi, Bro. Godwin’s song leader,  came into the ambulance and we chatted for a few minutes until they said it was time to go. As he stepped down out of the ambulance he started singing, and everyone joined him in, In Moments Like These, the song that the Lord had given me to bring to Zimbabwe. I bawled like a baby. I felt so unworthy of the love that these people had shown me,  yet they found me worthy. They closed the doors and I heard them singing as the ambulance slowly drove away.

Other Voices - Simplicio Shamba    

   Various brothers and sisters gathered at the airport to bid farewell to Bro. John, Sis. Linda and Pastor Ron in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  John, Linda and Pastor Ron have a very special place in our hearts.  They showed us true Christian love. John learnt some Shona whilest he was in Zimbabwe.  One of the things he could say was  Mwari Akuropa Fadzei Hama Hanzvadzi (God Bless you brothers and sisters)

    The ambulance circled the terminal building and drove me right up to the stairway of the airplane, a Boeing 767. I didn’t realize it but a drama was being played out in the terminal building.

Other Voices – Linda Low     

    While the orderlies loaded John into the plane, Bro. Ron and I were trying to clear customs to board.  When I had entered the country I was asked why I was there and my length of stay.  I told them about John's accident and that I expected to be there about a month.  Well, as I was at the customs desk I saw Bro. Ron clear all the proper stations and head through the metal detectors.  The man at the desk seemed to be having a problem with my passport.  Bro. Jeremiah asked what was wrong and the man stated I had been in the country longer than originally quoted and I would have to be detained.  While this conversation was going on the other officials were trying to get Bro. Ron to go on to the gate.  He finally turned and said, "I'm not moving until that lady is allowed to board!" Meanwhile, Bro. Jeremiah had had enough and he started assailing the customs agent in Shona.  I don't know what he said but it was obviously effective as all the agent quickly stamped my passport and allowed me to join Bro. Ron.

    When Linda and Bro. Ron came out of the terminal the men opened the door to the ambulance. Two of them unloaded the gurney I was on and wheeled me up to the stairway of the airplane. Now as bizarre as this sounds the shortest of the two picks up the bottom of the gurney and the tallest picks up the front. They start climbing up the stairs with me and . . . and I start to slide off of the gurney! Remember, they hadn’t strapped me to the gurney,  so I was having to hold on for dear life! My left hand was still curled up and had virtually no strength. My right hand had was the only thing I could use to grip the side rails to hold myself on the gurney. I can remember looking down between my legs and seeing the shorter man’s head right at my feet, right below the metal bars of the leg brace on my left leg. If I let go I would probably take his head off. My strength gave out just as we reached the top. My trip almost ended by my bouncing down those stairs back to the tarmac of the airport ramp area. Fortunately,  we made it into the cabin of the aircraft.

    As apprehensive as I was about being moved,   I was so excited to be going home that that overrode my concern. Fortunately,   the leg brace so totally immobilized my leg that there was virtually no pain when it was on and my concern rapidly vanished. After we arrived in the cabin the two men helped me to my feet and maneuvered me around to sit in my seat. We were in the very front of the aircraft, in first class, with the aisle to my immediate left and Bro. Ron and Linda sitting across the aisle from me. I was a little embarrassed when the other passengers started arriving. Because they had watched the ambulance unload me going into the aircraft  I was stared at by almost everyone, including the flight attendants.   I found out later that if I had had any problems during the flight the crew was prepared to turn around and take me back to Zimbabwe.

    When they closed the door and started the engines I could hardly contain myself. When we started our takeoff roll I felt like I was trying to lift that airplane off of the ground. When I heard the wheels thump into the airplane as the landing gear was retracted tears started rolling down mine and Linda’s faces. We were going home and we knew that everything was going to be okay.

    Since I knew the flight was a long one to London, about 12 hours, I settled down pretty quickly. Linda was pretty excited because at last she was going to have her pastor right there beside her and they could talk about everything, with no interruptions. Wrong!  Bro. Ron usually doesn’t sleep during flights but because of the intense pressure he had been under arranging to get me home he almost immediately fell sound asleep.

Other Voices - Ron Peterson     

   There was a tearful goodbye at the airport with the saints from the churches in Harare singing to Bro. John the song that he had taught them, "In Moments Like These". We finally got on board in business class and we were on our way home.   Bro. John's leg was in a medieval looking iron leg brace that had been rudely constructed in someone's backyard welding shop.  This is third world construction; they did the best they could with what they had.  Nevertheless,  we got ourselves seated and Bro. John was made as reasonably comfortable as possible for takeoff. 

    It was sometime during the taxiing of the aircraft on the runway that I began to relax.  The next thing I know I can hear the stewardess asking Sis. Linda,  who was sitting on my right in the seat next to me,  if I would like something to drink.  I managed to open one eye to look at Linda and I could hear her telling the stewardess, "No,  I don't think he will be needing a drink." 

    It's strange - normally I am never able to sleep on an airplane.  I had told Sis. Linda this in a previous conversation and she was looking forward to having some serious private time with her Pastor and asking some questions she had upon her heart.  It never happened, as I slept throughout most of the first 10 hours of a 12 hour flight.  It's a good thing she didn't need my help in taking care of Bro. John at this time 'cause I was dead to the world.  Forgive me,  Sis. Linda!

   Initially,  I was too excited to go to sleep so Linda and I chatted for the first hour or so. After about an hour it happened again! I started to feel nauseous and I knew it wasn’t because of airsickness. I’m too much of a pilot to get airsick. When I started to get dizzy I knew I was close to passing out again. Even though I was unaware of the crews instructions to return to Zimbabwe if I had any problems, I was so very afraid of not being able to get home that I started praying - it's the last thing I remember.  Apparently I fell asleep and slept for about 9 or 10 hours. When I awoke we were only a couple of hours from London and I felt great!

    Bro. Ron was finally awake so he and Linda traded places and we talked across the aisle. We weren’t sure how I was going to be handled when we arrived in London but I needn't have worried. After we landed and everyone except us had left the airplane, they backed up one of the food service trucks to the airplane -  you know,  the ones that have the enclosed scissors-lift beds. Bro. Ron and this attendant from British Airways lifted me into a wheelchair that had one of these orthopedic leg rests, wheeled me into the, now empty, food service truck, lowered me to the ground and took me into the terminal. The man was quite pleasant and he wheeled me through the terminal right into the dispensary in the terminal.

    This may sound dumb but what a miracle that was in itself - me not having to go to the bathroom for about 13 hours! It was well over an hour from when we left the hospital in Zimbabwe until we flew out of the airport. There was no way that I could have gotten into one of the rest rooms on the airplane but the Lord had taken care of me in something as simple as that!

Other Voices - Ron Peterson     

   The flights themselves were quite uneventful and praise the Lord,   Bro. John seemed to handle the trip very well.  Leaving Harare we flew to London, where I had arranged for a friend of mine who goes to Bro. Peter Chandler's church in London. Bro. Matthew King,  who is an M.D., came to meet us there at the gate when the plane  arrived and we took Bro. John to the airport's infirmary where he could lay down and rest during our layover for the next connecting flight to Boston.

    While John lay in the infirmary Sis. Linda and I went to McDonalds to eat a good old Quarter Pounder with cheese.  When Bro. John heard where we had been he asked where his burger was at - he was quite shocked that we hadn't gotten him one also.  Sorry Bro. John, but when you're on the plane we can't help you to the bathroom if nature calls.  Just a preventative measures, not that we didn't want to buy you one.

    When I awoke I felt marvelously refreshed. The same man from British Airways came with the wheelchair and courteously escorted us to our next flight, a Delta Airlines L1011. Because the wheelchair was too big for the aisles I had to be transferred to a special one designed for the narrow aisles on airliners. We sat in the very front row and this time Linda and I could sit next to each other. I was feeling wonderful, the staff made us feel like royalty and it felt like we were on a vacation. We laughed and joked and had a great time. As the long flight approached Boston we all got pretty quite.  When the wheels touched down at Logan Airport I looked and we all had tears in our eyes. We were home.

    The United States has it detractors and people who are always quick to point our her faults but it is still the greatest country in the world. I have always been proud to be an American and this one American was glad to be home again.

    After everyone had deplaned we waited for someone to bring us a wheelchair, but no one came. After a while we found out that Boston’s airport did not have any wheelchairs with orthopedic leg rests on them. (In fact,  apparently none of the airports in the US had them.) Anyway,  they decided that I would be carried through the terminal building to the airplane for our next flight. That would be accomplished by some of the biggest men I had ever seen. The airline had contacted the Boston paramedics that were stationed at the airport and asked for their help. I am a pretty good sized guy but these six men made me feel like a child. They effortlessly loaded me on to one of those open framed stretchers and hoisted me to their shoulders and off we went, right through the terminal building. There were hundreds of people in the terminal and I was so embarrassed. I wanted to cover my head with the blanket but I was afraid that if I did the people would think that I was a corpse instead of just someone very sick!

    We made it to the next Delta flight, another L1011. For some reason there was a delay so no one else boarded the flight for almost two hours, except us. It was pretty nice because we got to talk to the flight attendants and got reacquainted with our own type of people. Finally the plane was loaded and we began the next leg of our trip to Detroit. While this was still a very pleasant flight I was becoming pretty tired and my bedsores were starting to bother me quite a bit. We landed in Detroit in the early evening and had, as I recollect, about a three hour layover. Since my bottom was really starting to hurt I knew that I would have to lay down,  if at all possible, but first we had to get through the terminal. As I said,  none of the American airports had wheelchairs with orthopedic leg rests.

    Detroit was a very busy place when we went through that evening. Bro. Ron had to go out and hunt down a wheelchair but we couldn’t find anyone to help wheel me through the terminal. Because there were no orthopedic leg rests on the American wheelchairs Bro. Ron, bless his heart, had to walk backwards, hunched over,  holding my leg straight out while we maneuvered through this teeming airport. After about half an hour of this we got to our next gate and fortunately we found a section with about 6 empty chairs. Linda held my leg and Bro. Ron lifted me up over the rails of the wheelchair and gently laid me down on those seats. Oh, that felt sooooo good. Bro. Ron is quite a bit smaller than I and he said later that when he lifted me he could see spots before his eyes -  I maxed him out!

Other Voices - Ron Peterson     

   From Boston to Detroit was also a nice trip but when we reached the airport at Detroit it was late at night and Bro. John needed to get out of the wheelchair and lay down.  Having no one around to help us at that time of night  I had to pick him up myself from under the armpits behind the chair and lift him over the arm rests on the wheelchair while Linda lifted his broken leg in unison with my lift.  Brother, that was a miracle in itself.   It's a good thing he had lost some weight, as I would normally have never been able to lift him that high out of his wheelchair.  I just praise the Lord he gave me the strength to do it, cause after I set him down, I was seeing stars for a while.

     It was in Detroit that a female purser began questioning Bro. John's ability to walk with crutches if need be to exit the aircraft in the event of an emergency.   We told her it would be doubtful, but that we had just come from three other flights and none of them ever gave us a problem about it.  She insisted that if he was unable to get out of the plane himself, unassisted,  that she would not allow him on her aircraft, period!  It was then I told her, in no uncertain terms, that we had just flown all the way to Africa to pick this man up and bring him home so that he could get the necessary medical attention that he needed.  We had come this far and we weren't going to stop now.  When she understood our desperate situation, mixed with my bulldog determination to get him on that airplane (along with our prayers asking God to make a way for us), her whole countenance suddenly changed and she had compassion on us and even called for a paramedic team to come and hand carry John to his seat.  Praise the Lord, another miracle!

    After about a four hour flight we arrived in Phoenix at about 1:30AM and we were exhausted! All in all, the total travel time was 42 hours,  and it’s only by the grace of God that I didn’t have any serious problems on the trip home. We were the last ones off of the plane and there was about 20 of our friends and family to welcome us home.  All of my kids were there and there were plenty of tears to go around. The ambulance crew had put me unto a gurney and we stopped just briefly in the terminal to say hi and have a few hugs and then I was back in an ambulance . . . traveling to another hospital!

Other Voices - Ron Peterson     

   When we finally arrived in Phoenix most of the church was at the terminal waiting for us.  When Bro. John was taken into the terminal there was clapping and praising the Lord and everyone just wanted to shake his hand and welcome him home.   All of the Saint's faces looked to me like angels waiting to receive us.  It was so touching I will never forget it.  Welcome home - Bro. John let the healing begin.