The Making of Miracles

By Ruth Jones-Lester

This book involves events in the life and times of the author, Ruth Jones Lester starting from birth and continuing on into everyday occurrences. As she struggles to keep faith in her God while dealing with early drug addictions to later dealing with family matters on a day to day basis. Trying to stay clean with the complete faith in God to keep her on the right road in life. Forever trusting the Lord Jesus Christ to never let her go, while witnessing the awesome power and miracles that follows her through out her life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 11, 2011
• ISBN: 9781257514717

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author.

About the Author:

This book involves events in the life and times of the author, Ruth Jones Lester starting from birth and continuing on into everyday occurrences. As she struggles to keep faith in her God while dealing with early drug addictions to later dealing with family matters on a day to day basis, trying to stay clean with the complete faith in God to keep her on the right road in life. Forever trusting the Lord Jesus Christ to NEVER let her go, while witnessing the awesome power and miracles that follows her through out her life.

*A Special Thank You to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ who prompted me to keep track and write down what I experienced during my lifetime.

This book is dedicated to my Mother, Addie Lee Jones who never gave up on me and stayed endlessly on her knees praying for me and knowing that the Lord would deliver me from evil.

I Love You Mom!

*In the day when I cried, thou answered me and strengthened me with strength in my soul. Psalm 138:3

GETTING READY FOR THE JOURNEY

Once upon a time a long time ago, Maddie Lee Johnson felt a sharp kick coming from the baby inside her womb. She thought to herself how late it was and the fact that it was 1:45 am and she had not slept the entire night. Thoughts raced through her head about how the family was going to make it during that time. The sudden jolt got her attention.

As she lay there looking at the ceiling, a voice came to her from no where! She thought it was my Dad, James Johnson who was out working late that night. Then she realized that it was much deeper than that. It was a soothing voice, a peaceful voice that said…

Thou art carrying a daughter in thy womb. Thou shall call her name Ruth, for she shall do many wonders in her lifetime. Mom was only 5 months along with me. She had no idea what this meant at the time. She was quite alarmed at what she heard, but with the peaceful voice that spoke to her, there also came a peaceful sleep that overcame her.

Mom is such a beautiful woman. She resembles a famous movie star name Angela Bassett. With her award winning smile and generous personality, no wonder she was one of God’s favorites. Her prayers went straight up to Heaven and got answered every time! Finally, the day came when Ruth was born. The family had moved from the old house into the new house where I grew up. I grew up in Pasadena on El Sereno St. The house had 3 bedrooms and a little house in the back next to the garage. Further on back in the back yard near the alley, Daddy had a garage built, where he was at most of the time when he wasn’t at work. Daddy worked a lot. He was medium built man, balding at the top of his head with a loud voice, which he used often. The back yard was spacious. It was just right for raising a big family. The hospital was around the corner from the new home. I was born at 2:30 am on July 5, 1958. I was a cute baby with very little hair that was very curly nappy and wouldn’t lay straight. I resembled my father! As I grew into my 6th month, I cried a lot and started scratching people that tried to hold me and coo at me. I was becoming a tiny fighter. The Lord made me that way. He knew I needed that early training as a fighter. Soon, I was left alone in my crib at the mercy of older brothers strolling by to take a jab at me or family walking by glancing at me and carrying on with their duties of the day. I learned how to entertain myself even at a young age.

MY FIRST BOYFRIEND, HOWIE

I was only 12, when I started feeling all these crazy emotions. I wasn’t sure if I was coming or going. I was in love with Howie. He was 12 too and a cancer, like me. He stood a little taller than me and he always had dry lips. We both went to Washington Middle School in Pasadena where we locked eyes and then just fell for each other. We gazed into each other’s eyes endlessly when we wanted to kiss, hoping that we both felt the same way. We both ended up in a garage that was empty in the alley. We held each other loosely as we kissed each other on closed tight lips. It would have been gross to touch each other’s tongues. We plastered our lips together and pressed them real tight, as the warm funky breath from both our nostrils got both of us so hot! It was complete passion! It was my first love. I loved Howie, even though I wasn’t sure what that meant. That’s all I knew was that our feet dug deep into the small pebbles that were under our feet in the small enclosed garage. Who cared about where the owners of the garage were at that time. That’s all we knew was that they were not there. That we were safe in each other’s arms, kind of. All of my sisters and brothers thought it was cute at the time. No one ever gave Howie a hard time. Everyone liked Howie. He was tall and he smelled different than any boy that I knew, especially my brothers. His lips were dry, but they tasted good when I kissed them. His eyes had the work of innocence running through them and I knew that I was in love with him. We held hands as we walked home from school each day and I felt as if I were on top of the world. Howie was my world. We went together for at least 7 months, then we started growing apart. I wanted more excitement! There had to be more out there for me! We drifted our separate ways, but still managed to stay friends.

I started walking to school every morning with my best friend, Carol. She lived around the corner on Montana. I bugged her family every morning ringing their doorbell and asking for Carol. I can tell that her Mom was truly annoyed, but I knocked and rang the doorbell anyway until Carol came outside. Carol was fun to be with and we had great times. Mom would give me .75 for my lunch money each morning and Carol and I would stop at a little candy store along the way. I would buy 75 penny candies every morning with my lunch money. Soon, my teeth started to turn brown. I had ruined them, but I didn’t care! I munched and smacked on that candy anyway! It was so good! After my teeth got nice and brown, I stopped smiling as much. There was a program at school, a dental program where a bus came to the school and transported us to a dental school in Los Angeles. There the student dentist worked on our mouths and slaughtered us good! But I continued to eat candy. I didn’t know any better. Carol and I continued to be friends until her family moved away and I lost contact with her. I missed her terribly.

MY BIG BROTHER, CECIL

*FEBRUARY 1970

Cecil, my older brother was the talk of the town with the girls, and they all loved him. I loved all the guys coming over to see my brother too. Cecil was handsome and dressed well everyday. His big afro had to be perfectly rounded and neat. He constantly practiced his dance moves through out the day, twisting, turning and tapping on things as if they were a drum. He sang to me right in my face, as I begged him to stop! He loved Stevie Wonder’s My Cherie A More and sounded just like him! He had so much energy! There were 2 girls at my school who really wanted to get next to Cecil. Their names were Betty and Rio. They were not popular girls, but a lot of people knew of them. Cecil didn’t even know they existed! They pretended to be my friend, that way they could come over to the house, smile and be right there in Cecil’s face everyday. And that is exactly what they did. They convinced my Mom that they would keep me out of trouble, and Mom felt that I was safe being with them. It was during this process, that I lost the beautiful innocence of my youthful being as well as my first love, Howie.

Betty, Rio and I went to house parties and school dances, and everywhere Cecil went and got his groove on, there we were too. I wasn’t for sure if I was being used or not, but what I did know was that I was simply having a good time, hanging out with 2 big sisters that protected me and made me look grown up! I remember going to a dance at John Muir High School. Betty and Rio were smoking a cigarette, and flirting with guys. They were trying to make Cecil jealous, but he didn’t care about them one way or the other! He was watching me! He was being a protective big brother. He knew what they were up too, but he was powerless against it. Even though I did the same thing they were doing, watching them at age 12, I couldn’t help but imitate them. And that is what I did! I even learned to smoke a cigarette. One night while I was trying to be cute, Cecil was watching me while I smoked a cigarette. It dangled from my lips as I flirted with a guy. Cecil came up, pulled me aside and told me never to smoke cigarettes again because I didn’t look right with it hanging from my lips. He even teased me about how ridiculous I looked smoking. Cecil then left me to go talk to some girl that was waiting on him. I stood there feeling totally dumb watching Cecil as he walked away. Betty rushed up to me and told me that I should have been more careful and should have never been caught. I thought I was being careful and didn’t know what she was talking about! I kept smoking cigarettes, and was very sneaky at it, but it was always in the back of my mind what Cecil told me. Cecil also told me that these girls, Betty and Rio were not my friend, and were using me to get next to him. Shortly after that, I found other people to hang out with.

HANGING OUT AT GLENDA’S HOUSE

AUGUST 1970

I started hanging out at Glenda’s house. After all, she is my cousin. She couldn’t do any harm, or could she? We did all sorts of things at her house. Glenda and I were about the same height. Her personality outweighed mine as I went along with everything she said.

She was cute with her hair line coming down onto her forehead. She could swim in a pool like a fish and I always envied her for that. I was afraid of the deep end of the pool! I always thought the drain would swallow me and hold me down. Damn that pool drain!

They lived in Altadena and after their parents had gone to work, boys lined up there to get kissed and teased. That’s all we did was listen to Michael Jackson’s latest grooves, and get our groove on. They had a swimming pool and everything! There was even a dark room in the garage, where a lot of action took place. In spite of it all, at that time, I still remained a virgin. Irene, Glenda’s older sister on the other hand, was not. She was sleeping with Paul, the guy who lived next door. Paul was a really sneaky guy. You would never suspect what he was up too. He crept in and out. I didn’t even know that he lived next door! They kept it up everyday, until she became pregnant with his baby.

When that happened, Irene’s parents demanded they get married, and have the ceremony in the back yard by the pool. Irene was 7 months pregnant when they married, and had a hard time getting into that wedding dress. Irene was a small girl with a huge baby growing inside! She was nervous as she stood there getting married. After the preacher pronounced them man and wife, her eyes grew big as if she were going to pass out!

Shortly afterwards, they moved to a home around the corner on Fair Oaks in Pasadena. She had a baby boy, and people wanted to hang out there at their house all the time. She couldn’t even attend to her newly married life, because she could not say no to the people knocking on her door. Most of them were her cousins, I was one of them. Then, there were just friends ditching school. Shortly afterwards, drugs found their way into that home. While over there one day, a guy came over with some angel dust. I was really hesitant, because we were already high on weed and beer. This guy, who we barely knew, talked us into mixing in our weed, some green, weird looking stuff. It smelled weird, and after we smoked it, we were too high. Everything looked so strange. We didn’t even know who that guy was. That’s all we knew is that he told us that he was from New York, and new to town. His name was Alex, and he came over often. He told us that he sold the angel dust for some guy that he hardly knew. He became a regular friend at the house. And as long as he bought the goods over for us to smoke, he was cool with everyone that was there. Alex was short with curly hair. He was even kind of cute. He kept us supplied with the angel dust…

THE ABANDONED CHILDREN

One day, while we were sitting my home, we heard children crying outside of the front door. Mom went to the door and was surprised at what she saw there. We were shocked! There, on our front lawn were 3 suitcases and 2 small crying children. They were my niece and nephew! My brother Larry’s kids! Their mother had abandoned them. She left my nephew, Paul who was about 4 years old and his sister, Dawn, who was 2 in front of the house with a note pinned on them. The note was addressed to Mom from Lorraine, the kids’ mother. She was upset with Larry. The note said, You can do with them whatever you want. Raise them or take them to the welfare office. I do not want them. I am headed to New York.

We were all devastated! How could a Mom do this to her children? Mom was really devastated. I had just learned to comb my own hair. I was growing up and now Mom had to start all over again with little kids! A little girl! It just so happens that my brother Larry, cheated on Lorraine and had children of the same ages with another woman named Donna. Donna stole him away. Donna also had a boy the same age as Paul and a little girl the same age as Dawn. It was such a mess. Now Larry’s problems became ours.

I was forced into the role of being an older sister at that time. Dawn cried a lot. Peter and I were not used to all that crying. We started beating her up when no one was around. She kept telling us to shut up when Mom was around, so we beat her up when Mom went away. She was only 2. That’s what some 2 year olds tell people. Shut up.

This went on for quite some time, until they both got older and wiser and shut their mouths up. Peter was quite crazy when we were coming up and everybody knew this.

One day, Dawn came home from school with a nice case of the mumps in tow. I caught the mumps from her. There was no immunization. Cecil caught them from ME!

CECIL CATCHES THE MUMPS FROM ME

Even though Cecil struggled with keeping his illness a secret, he took me right along with him. I felt guilty for infecting him. I had to cover for him. One day while I was in the kitchen, Cecil came in and told me that he wanted to go to a party, but his lymph nodes had become swollen. He ask me if I could see the swelling. I told him yes, I could. He tried to hide it from Mom so he could go to that party. He swore me to secrecy. I watched him wrap Nia’s green knee high sock around his head to push the mumps in. I remember that long green sock very well. I remember that my older sister, Nia use to wear it. It was the color green of Blair High School that she and Cecil attended. I did not know the consequences of keeping a secret like that and what the damage could be afterward. I would have surely told mom, if I had only known…I should have told.

Then I saw Cecil getting a chair and standing on it to reach something way up in the kitchen cabinet. I ask him what he was doing. He told me he did not feel well, and if he could just take a sip of daddy’s homemade wine, he would feel a lot better. I told him I was going to tell. He shook that fist at me and told me I’d better not. He said he had a talent show to perform, and he had to be there with his group, the Mellow Fellows. That group was quite popular and the girls went wild after them.

He poured a little of the wine into a glass, drank it down and put the jug back where he found it. He got dressed and went out. The Mellow Fellows had performed and had a good time that night, even though Cecil was very ill.

The next morning, I noticed that Cecil was in the bathroom for a long time. I went and told Mom. Mom went in to check on him, and I later found out that he could not use the bathroom, because his kidneys had stopped on him. Mom took him to the hospital. As Cecil was walking out of the door, he turned and told me that if he died, he would be back to haunt us in the house and we had better not sell his clothes to anybody!

The kidney dialysis machine was in the early stages, and was not for use as it is today. Cecil was admitted to the hospital. But I just knew that he would be home. There was no doubt about it. He would be back. He would not die there.

He only got worse. Cecil ended up in a County Hospital, like a free clinic, and he was not given the proper care. We don’t know why he ended up there, after all he was supposed to be insured with enough medical insurance to cover him at a better facility.

He told Mom that he wanted to come home and that he missed Mom’s homemade cooking. The hospital kept him there longer than expected. The doctor’s told Mom that he could not come home and they put him in extensive care. Mom decided to sneak him some home made food. Cecil wanted some fried chicken. When she arrived at the hospital early in the morning with chicken in tow to feed him, she found his bed empty. He was not there! Mom asks the nurse where he was, but the nurse did not answer her! As Mom started to panic, another nurse pulled her aside and told her Cecil had passed. There should have been a nurse at Cecil’s bedside, watching him 24/7, instead, she chose to leave the room. When she left the room, Cecil pulled himself up on the bed bars for reasons unknown. The doctors had cut a hole in his stomach to pump out the waste that was trapped inside his body. He could not expel it on his own. When he pulled himself up, he spilled himself onto the bed, fell back and then died. The dam nurse should have never left that room! We were completely devastated! How are we ever going to get along without him? He had told Mom that he just wanted to get home to taste her fried chicken and homemade food! He wanted to come home, but didn’t. My life would never be the same again. Cecil also told Mom while he was in the hospital that Peter and I were headed down the wrong track in life. That would only be putting it lightly… Mom called and told us the awful news at home. I could not believe what I was hearing!

Later on that morning, the phone rang. I answered it. Is Cecil there? Ask the voice on the other end. It was Tony, his want to be girl friend who had come over, and who we had spied on through the key hole. I tried to be calm when I said, Cecil is dead. This resulted in a short pause, then hysterical screaming. At that point, I hung up the phone.

CECIL’S DEATH COMES AS A SHOCK!

January 23, 1971:

Cecil’s funeral was packed with crying girls and a bunch of guys who said they were friends of his. The church could not hold all those people that attended. As the viewing took place, some lady from Woods Valentine Funeral Home motioned us to our feet. We were in the second row. I could see him lying in the casket. I couldn’t believe my eyes!

He looked like a little boy lying there! He looked so helpless, but he was not there! I looked at him and knew that he was not in that body. Cecil, my brother, was gone! Shock set in. As if that wasn’t enough, the lady from the funeral home was making us march up and look at him closely in the casket! I told her to stop, but she made me go past his casket and stop! I looked at him closely. I noticed he had a mole on his finger that I had never noticed before. He looked like such a small boy, and not the powerful brother that told me to shut up, don’t smoke cigarettes and don’t ever give any cash to guys, or they will use you to get more. No, he looked so young lying in that casket, like he was asleep. It felt as if I were going to pass out as I remembered him saying that if he died, he would come back to haunt us. Why did he say that to me? I knew that my life would never be the same. It felt as if I would die too…

As we drove to Rose Hills Cemetery, everything seemed so dark on the way. I was so lost. I had lost my good friend, and my good brother. I was becoming very lost at that moment in my own skin. I couldn’t believe that he lay in that black hearst!

At the cemetery, the band from Blair High School played a salute to my brother. They banged on those drums real loud and made me super nervous! I was so upset already! But, Cecil played the drums in the band, and somehow I knew he would like this. He even brought his drums to the house and banged on them in our back yard on El Sereno. I will never forget that beat he played over and over again. He was a drummer.

Everyone was traumatized by what they were seeing. He was only 17 years old. He died January 23, 1971. Now he is gone from the earth forever…but into the hands of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

THE STRANGER MOLESTER AND IMPOSTER

After the funeral, and the reception that followed, I knew my life would never be the same again. That evening, I remember sitting on the small stone wall that belonged to our neighbor, Ms. Lucas. It was heading into the evening and slowly getting dark outside. I was sitting there crying my eyes out. I figured no one would notice me there. Then I peeped down the alley that is right next to the small brick wall. Standing there, at the end of the alley, was a dark tall figure with an afro. He was just standing there in the middle of the alley about a quarter of a mile down. He resembled Cecil, or so I thought he did. I missed him terribly already! I stood up and faced him, thinking he had come back to tell me everything was O.K. I looked closer. He reached his arms out towards me! I started crying harder as he started walking slowly towards me, as if he understood everything I was going through. I knew everything would be alright and I knew it was Cecil coming to my aid like he always did. I noticed that it had become darker out. I strained my eyes to see him coming my way. He walked slowly as he got closer. He had on dark glasses, just like Cecil had sometimes worn. I thought he was my brother! He finally came up to me and told me to ssshhhh. I tried to be quiet, but my eyes were too swollen, and I was very upset. He wrapped his arms around me as if he really cared about me. Then all of a sudden he thrust his hands between my legs and started moving them around with great force! I was deeply in shock as I quickly came to my senses, and realized that this was not my brother!!! It was the neighbor!

The girl’s boyfriend that lived next door to us! He had fooled me! He took advantage of me! He had been watching me! He hurt me at my weakest moment. I broke away from him, screamed and pushed him away. He ran down the dark alley into the night. I was only a lost little girl, who had just lost her older brother. I was only 12…

I felt that I needed to escape all the pain, hurt and the loss of my brother.

I needed protection. Cecil was not there to protect me anymore. I was in despair.

I started looking at Peter for protection, but Peter started acting very cold. He was dealing with his grief of losing his older brother in a totally different way. He decided to shut me out of his life. He was in his own world dealing with the grief and loss.

I had no idea that Cecil’s friends, the Mellow Fellows had made a promise to keep an eye on me so I wouldn’t get hurt. But where were they the other night when I did get hurt?

June 1973:

I started to hang out at Irene and Paul’s house a lot. It was in walking distance, and everybody met there and did their thing. As I approached my 13th birthday, I started meeting different people that were not in my best interest. The guy that had the angel dust, Alex became my boyfriend. We did all sorts of things together. I loved the way he kissed my lips. He was really good. He made me feel good. I was a virgin and I was determined to stay that way but Alex really made it hard for me. We came real close on numerous occasions to having sex. He supplied all of us at Irene’s house with lots of drugs, especially angel dust. I smoked everything that anybody had. I was lost in a world of drugs and booze. I had no one to come and see about me. I didn’t care anymore

THE WEED TRIP AND DADDY

One evening, Peter, who is a year older than I and our neighbor across the street name Bobby and I decided to smoke some joints in the front yard of our house. The joints were rolled, and Bobby lit them as Peter and I smoked them up real good. We laughed and teased each other. We also talked about other people and laughed at them. We were getting really stoned! That night was very pretty and clear; as a matter of fact, there was a big full moon and it was shining bright. We were unaware that daddy had been standing there, blending in with the moonlight, just listening to our every word! We had no idea he was standing there all that time. We don’t even know how long he was there! We were cursing and talking really crazy talk. I guess he just couldn’t take it any longer. He cleared his throat. We looked up and couldn’t believe that he blended in so well with the darkness of the night and against the full moon! We were so very embarrassed and ashamed! He started yelling at us and made get inside the house. Immediately, we were not high anymore! Everything was ruined! Why was he always yelling? He then marched across the street and told Bobby’s parents too. Bobby’s folks didn’t care what Bobby did. I’m sure they both looked at Daddy as if he were crazy or something. If we got a whipping with the belt, I don’t remember it. He probably just yelled our heads off, like he always did.

The next day, I was really ashamed, until my next high, then I simply forgot about the