And May God Bless: A Memoir of Searching and Finding then Depending on the God of the 'and may God bless' spoken by Red Skelton at the End of Every Television Show

By Ruth Ann Comer

Read about sixty-nine years of miracle after miracle. How I survived numerous unimaginable traumas, illnesses, surgeries, mental illness, and suicide attempts. The book begins at age twenty-one, just married, suffered kidney failure, having emergency surgery afterward being pronounced dead, ending up in heaven. My return from heaven finds I am now terminally ill with only a year to live if I do not get pregnant. But God! Also how I, as a little girl, hunted for the God of the “and may God bless” and finding him. See how depending on God brings me to sanity, even supernatural physical healing throughout all my troubles, suffering, responsibilities, and laced with spiritual warfare.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781644686645

Book preview

cover.jpg

And May God Bless

A Memoir of Searching and Finding then Depending on the God of the 'and may God bless' spoken by Red Skelton at the End of Every Television Show

Ruth Ann Comer

ISBN 978-1-64468-663-8 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64468-664-5 (Digital)

Copyright © 2021 Ruth Ann Comer

All rights reserved

First Edition

Scriptures taken from the following Bible Versions:

World English Bible WEB public domain ePub generated by Haiola 12 Jan 2020 from source files dated 12 Jan 2020 0dfc2690-ff54-5674-9e07-e6266c1ff41b

Michael Paul Johnson and many others. World English Bible (Kindle Locations 14-15).

Amplified Bible AMP ©1965 by Zondervan Publishing House. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 65-19500

Author’s Note: All names were changed.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

Died, Gone to Heaven, and Sent Back at Age Twenty-One

Miracle Birth of My Son Louis

Living in the Cabin on the Mountain

Life from Birth to Age Six, Living in Northern Maryland

Ages Three to Seven, the Puppy Named Davy Crockett

Finding My First Church at Age Eight

Living in the Projects and Now a Member of the Salvation Army Church At Age Nine

The First Move Out of the City to the Country at Age Ten

The Beatitudes to My Rescue in a Time of Despair at Age Eleven

The Move to Northern Virginia at Age Twelve

Two Foster Homes Associated with the Salvation Army, Ages Fourteen to Sixteen

Nathan Died

Post-High School Graduation, My First Full-time Employment

Estranged from My Husband, Fearing for My Life

Answered Prayer of Miracle Healing, Confirmation by Doctor and X-rays

Adventure in California and Washington State

In Hiding from Husband Again

Five Ovarian Ectopic Pregnancies

Three Years Working at the Church as Secretary to Three Associate Pastors

Mom, Dear Mom And Canning Hints

Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. (Luke 6:28 WEB)

Office Worker’s Compensation Case for Acute Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, Eventually Returning to Work

Surgery and Dealing with Aftermath Depression of Suicide Attempt

Mentally Ill Sister, Debra, Schizophrenia and Multiple Personality Disorder

Full Retirement

Successfully Losing Weight and Taken Off Insulin with Meals

A Look into Mental Health Disorders and Suicidal Ideations

Rhema Word from God Caused Me to Grasp God’s Will for My Life, and Jesus Set Me Free from Suicidal Ideations by the Cleansing Stream© Seminar Course and Retreat

Introduction

With miracle after miracle, I have survived numerous unimaginable traumas, illnesses and surgeries, mental illness and suicide attempts throughout my life. I begin the book at age twenty-one, just married, suffered kidney failure, having emergency surgery, after which being pronounced dead and ending up in heaven. My return from heaven finds I am now terminally ill with the prognosis of having only a year to live if I do not get pregnant. But God! Also, how I, as a little girl, searched for the God of the and may God bless. Finding Him. Then depending on Him continually. See how depending on God brings me to sanity, even supernatural physical healing, throughout all my troubles, suffering, responsibilities, and laced with fierce spiritual warfare.>

---

< Habakkuk 3:19 (AMP): The Lord God is my strength, my personal bravery and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet, and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering or responsibility]!

Ephesians 6:11–19 (WEB): Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having the utility belt of truth around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having fitted your feet with the preparation of the Good News of peace, above all, take up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; with all prayer and requests, praying at all times in the Spirit, and being watchful to this end in all perseverance and requests for all the saints. Pray for me, that utterance may be given to me opening my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the Good News.

1

Died, Gone to Heaven, and Sent Back at Age Twenty-One

It was now time my fiancé, Joe, and I got our own place. He was recently honorably discharged from the military after serving four years in the US Marine Corps. He fought in the Vietnam War for ten months, stationed at DaNang Air Force Base, South Vietnam. He is now working as a roofer.

We found an apartment just about three blocks from my work where I was a GS-five pay-grade secretary for the administrative section of the recruitment branch at headquarters Marine Corps. I could walk to work, even come home for lunch. After a couple of months, we got married by a justice of the peace.

Several months before this time, I had been hospitalized for an operation on my urethra and urinary tract system, hopefully to correct the chronic kidney infections that kept me on antibiotics for months at a time for several years. The operation went well, and I was out of the hospital in three days.

Eleven days after I got married, though, my kidneys shut down completely. I had to have emergency surgery on my kidneys, ureters, and bladder. I was so bad off I do not remember arriving or being admitted into the hospital, even though I drove myself the thirty-five miles from work to the hospital.

The next thing I remembered is waking up after surgery, being wheeled to my hospital room, then being placed in bed. A few minutes after the nurses left the room, I was in horrific pain and very sick, feeling like I had never felt before—like I was dying. I called out for a nurse in a weak voice, Help, help me. A nurse came running into my room, and before I knew it, she called a code to resuscitate me. I was experiencing an out-of-the-body episode while hovering above the room looking down on the nurse, seeing her lean out the hospital room door and calling down the hall, Code.

Immediately, I was out of my body in a dark tunnel with a bright light at the end of it like a pinhole. I traveled through the dark tunnel toward the light with the light mass getting bigger and bigger the closer I got to it.³ All pain was gone.⁴ I was at total peace, a peace beyond understanding. All at once, I was enveloped by the bright light, and I was instantly in the presence of Jesus Christ.⁵ There I stood before Jesus, face-to-face.⁶ I was experiencing so great a peace and joy there are no words to describe it.⁷ Jesus looked into my eyes, then turned me to my left. There stood my brother Nathan who had died four and a half years ago with my nine-foot-tall guardian angel standing behind him.

My brother and I talked with one another through our thoughts, though no word was spoken by mouth. We were happy to see each other. Then Jesus turned me to the right. I was looking down into the hospital room where my body lay on the bed where the urology surgical team and the hospital code team was working on my body, trying to resuscitate it.

Then Jesus turned me a little bit farther to the right, and He opened my sight to see the spiritual realm of warring angels, both good and evil, hundreds of them fighting.⁸ Then Jesus turned me back to the hospital room. I saw as the urology surgeon pronounces me dead. Then he covered my body with the sheet up to my chest and lay each arm straight by my sides outside the sheet, preparing the body for viewing by the family. The rest of the medical team congregated at the foot of the bed while he did this.

Now the urology surgeon moved toward the foot of the bed. He told everyone to hold hands, and he began to pray, Our Father in Heaven…⁹ At that moment, all heaven’s attention was on the room! This was a great mystery of heaven’s capabilities; being in heaven, I just knew all heaven’s attention was on the room. As the urology surgeon prayed, Jesus turned me back to look at his face. He asked me, Do you want to go back, or do you want to stay? I did not know which to choose.

My brother spoke to me, saying, You must go back. The grief of the family will be too great to bear if you do not go back. Jesus said, There is something not yet done.

With that, all of a sudden, I was going back into my body and was in horrific pain again. The medical teams were shocked to see me come to life. They immediately attended to me. I lapsed instantly into a coma for several days. I could hear everything that was going on around me and felt the treatments being done to me, but I could not see or move or speak. I could feel the nurses bathing me and adjusting the urinary catheter, but my opinion was they were sexually molesting me. In my mind, I tried to fight them off with my fists every time they treated me.

The respiratory therapist would roll me on my side and pound on my back to loosen up the congestion in my lungs so I could breathe better. My view was that she was beating me up. In my mind, I tried to fight her off but could not move or speak even though in my mind I was throwing a fistfight.

Whenever the nurse gave me shots in my hips, I would get so mad at her for not forewarning me I was going to get a shot. Telling me would have made the pain of it easier to endure. In my mind, I fist-fought her off even though I could not move or speak. This went on for several days.

One time, two nurses were working on me, and I was fighting them in my mind. When, all of a sudden, I woke up out of the coma and began lashing out at the two nurses, yelling for them to stop it. They tried to restrain me, but I was too strong in my fight as one tried to reason with me by talking to me. I kept demanding they get my doctor for me. One nurse said, We cannot because it is two o’clock in the morning, but he will see you in the morning. Finally, they were able to restrain me by giving me a sedative shot which put me to sleep until morning.

My urology surgeon saw me first thing in the morning along with my husband, Joe. The urology surgeon said, Nothing we did brought you back (from death), you came back on your own. He told me, With kidney failure, you might only live a year. But you must not get pregnant because if you do, the baby will die, and you will surely die during the pregnancy.

A year! I only have a year to live. In that amount of time, I can have a baby. I will not die as Nathan did without trying to have a baby to leave behind. The child would be a comfort for the family, someone to love in my absence.¹⁰

The doctor said, You need major reconstructive surgery to your kidneys, but I have little hope you would survive the surgery. So he said he would not do it. He also said, You need kidney dialysis, but it is not readily available to just anybody because there are few and far between kidney dialysis centers, and there is too large of a demand for all in need of it to allow you to have it. You are not a candidate for kidney dialysis because you have to be able to survive major surgery to be applicable. Furthermore, the doctor said, I have put you on the kidney transplant list, but a transplant would only be done in a life-or-death situation. You still need to stay at least a month in the hospital right now.

I managed over the next ten days to be a great burden on the nursing staff. The doctor said to Joe, She is losing her will to live and going into a deep depression. The doctor said the only hope was to discharge me home where I could recover physically and mentally with my husband’s help, extended family, and friends.

I told no one about my time in heaven. My belief was they would think me crazy. I did not even tell my husband. I contemplated continuously, I only have a year to live, and I must have a baby before I die. (Many years later, my second younger sister, Emma, told me, I came to the hospital to see you while you were in a coma. Your color was gray, and I knew you were close to death from my experience. I was very disturbed at your appearance. She said, The same thing (out-of-the-body experience and hovering above the hospital room) happened to me months before, only I saw no light. I just saw people beating on this person in the room under me, and I told them ‘stop beating her’ then realized it was me! Then I flew at a fast speed. I cannot remember anything after that. Our doctor died from the same kidney disease we had. Jesus healed me a few years later, so I did not die like our doctor who was nearly forty years old. Emma said, Our oldest sister, Sunshine, and Mom came to visit you while you were in a coma too.)

I eventually went back to work for several weeks. The doctor said I would be better off not working. I gave a two-week notice and resigned my job. My employer awarded me a Certificate of Commendation for outstanding administrative services for the four years I worked in the Administrative Section, Military Personnel Procurement Branch, Personnel Department, Headquarters U. S. Marine Corps. Also, I received from the commandant of the Marine Corps a cash reward of $150 for Sustained Superior Performance in recognition of the superior level of performance during those four years.

We continued to live in the apartment next to my workplace.

Every two weeks, I would have to go to the urology surgeon for tests, instructions, and prescriptions. He said I still needed kidney dialysis but could not have it due to lack of availability.

Every waking hour, I was consumed contemplating, I need to get pregnant since my life expectancy is only a year. About five or six weeks after I got out of the hospital, I missed my menstrual period, and I believed I was pregnant. I was delighted. The following urology appointment, I told the doctor, I think I am pregnant. He did a urine and blood test to verify. He also reminded me the baby and I would die during the pregnancy, and he insisted I have an abortion to save my life. There was no way I was going to have an abortion just to save my life for a couple extra months to live.¹¹

I got an appointment with an obstetrician (OB/GYN surgeon) right away. He got my medical records from the urology surgeon with his instructions I needed an abortion. The doctor verified I was pregnant, but he does not do abortions. The OB/GYN surgeon’s exact words were, I do not commit abortions. If you want an abortion, I can send you to another doctor who does them. I was greatly relieved. I told him, I do not want an abortion, I want this baby. He said, If you want this baby, I will do everything in my power to help you through this pregnancy.

So every two weeks, I would see the urology surgeon as scheduled, and he would tell me how sick I was, how dangerous it was to be pregnant, and I needed an abortion. Then I would go see the OB/GYN surgeon; he would tell me how well the baby was doing. When I was four months pregnant, he said, You are the sickest patient I have, but I never hear you complain like some of my other patients. You are the happiest patient I have.

My baby bump was growing larger and larger. The clothing I wore at the time were baggy pants with a large elastic abdomen panel to accommodate the ever-growing belly and very large loose blouses. No tight clothing was revealing my enlarged abdomen.

During my fourth months of pregnancy, Joe’s brother Saul with his wife and two small sons came to live with us temporarily. During this time, the urology surgeon, again and again, pressured me to abort the baby because the prognosis for the baby was nil (baby would never continue to live in the womb). The prognosis for me is fifty-fifty percent chance to live, with a decreasing chance to live as I go further along into the pregnancy.

At this time, I was needing a release mentally of the pressure the doctor was putting on me to have an abortion. I was very stressed out. I would often scream at everybody in the house and slam doors in frustration. I did everything I could to drive all of the people in the house as far away from me as I could because I did not know how to say I need you here now more than anything or anyone. But I did not know if I could trust anyone, knowing what I was bearing up under. I was more afraid I would soften and be vulnerable to disclosing my misery. No one knew, not even Joe, what was going on in my mind.

You may ask, Why did you not tell Joe? I could not trust him either. Before we got married, Joe and I discussed the what ifs with children in case there had to be made a choice between mother and child in a life-threatening situation. At the time, Joe said, If it ever came down to a life-or-death situation during the pregnancy, if I have to choose between the baby or you, I want you to live. Well, I made sure he never had to choose.

I had to continue the pregnancy on the gut feeling. I just knew the baby and I would survive. Especially remembering and claiming the promise God made to me in my dream when I was fifteen years old when God said, You will have a son, and he will live.

Well, this repeatedly went on every two weeks until I was five months pregnant. At the time, the urology surgeon said there was nothing more he could do about me being pregnant; it was too late to have an abortion to save my life. I was thoroughly relieved abortion was out of the question now. I had succeeded in carrying this baby this far without trouble to the baby. I still had minimal kidney function, but by God, it was enough to keep the baby and me alive. My very life and thinking surrounded the carrying this baby long enough for it to be born.

The wife of brother-in-law Saul had learned to make loaf bread from scratch. I learned too. Every Thursday was my baking day. I would make loaf bread, cinnamon rolls, French bread, all kinds of baked yeast bread recipes. Then every Thursday night, our friends would come over to eat it all. My husband and I really enjoyed doing this. It is one of the few things I remember about the pregnancy outside of the doctor visits. Except I would drive to Mom’s to do laundry whenever I had doctor appointments. I remember one day while carrying the laundry basket and stepping up onto her front porch being about seven months pregnant and falling down into the basket of clothes, not hurting myself. I rejoiced in it, knowing I was so big, meaning the baby is growing inside me.

I rejoiced in my life; though it is going to be short, I am giving life. I knew I was going to have a live birth because when I was fifteen years old, there was an altar call at the end of the church service for all to come up to the altar to pray if they want to know what their calling is on their life by God. I went forward to the altar with great anticipation wanting but not knowing what God’s call was upon my life. Well, at the end of the church service, I still did not hear God. I was disappointed, but the preacher said, God may reveal it to you another time. Just wait on God.

Well, that night I had a dream rather was more like a vision: I had a tiny baby boy with strawberry blond hair. He was placed in a glass bassinet while kicking his legs in the air and crying a faint cry. God said to me in the dream, You will have a son, and he will live. That is why I was not afraid the baby would die while I was pregnant because God told me way back then my son would live. This is the reason why I had the dream and why I remembered the dream after six years. Recalling it saved my son from being aborted.

I was so happy how big I was with carrying this baby. I did not let it bother me; my husband was worried about me, but he still joined in my joy throughout the pregnancy. Joe would almost always greet me with a rub on my tummy, saying, Baby as though cooing to the baby. We enjoyed spending a lot of time rubbing it and feeling the baby kick.

Late in the pregnancy, we had to sleep in separate beds because Joe did not like to be woken up by the kicking, and he said it grosses him out to cuddle me with such a big tummy. Those were lonely nights sleeping in separate beds, but I was reassured I was still doing what God wanted me to do, that being: carry the baby to term alive, both the baby and me.

The last couple of weeks I was pregnant, I caught a cold and was very sick. The doctor called in a prescription to the local pharmacy for me. It was a snowy night, and my husband could not drive, so he walked to the pharmacy. After a few days of taking the prescription, I was starting to feel better.

I went to all my doctor appointments right on schedule. Finally, the OB/GYN surgeon said, You are ready to have this baby in the next week. You should not be alone at any time. So Joe and I went to live this final week with his parents. It was a joyous time with them knowing the baby will be full-term in just a few more weeks.

Joe and I slept on the fold-down couch in the den adjacent to the kitchen. Very early one morning, I woke up and realized, maybe I am in labor. I saw my mother-in-law fixing breakfast for my father-in-law, who was sitting at the head of the table with his back to me. I let them know how I was feeling, like I might be in labor. My father-in-law started timing the contractions as he ate breakfast, while Joe was sound asleep beside me utterly unaware of what was going on. We just let him sleep. Well, too much time went by without a progression of labor pains. My mother-in-law said probably not today.

That night, my in-laws had me sleep upstairs in a more comfortable bed closer to the bathroom. In the middle of the night, I had diarrhea many times. Then about daybreak, my water broke. I put on a baby diaper and went downstairs to tell my mother-in-law and husband. Joe called the OB/GYN surgeon’s answering service and left the message my water broke, but no labor pains.

My ten-year-old brother-in-law was fixing breakfast and asked what I would like to eat. Anything, he would fix it. Not knowing any better, I told him French toast and coffee. I enjoyed my breakfast. It was so special to have my young brother-in-law do such a good job fixing it by himself.

Finally, after several hours, the doctor called and said get to the hospital right away and do not eat anything. Well, too late to know that.

We lived in Northern Virginia, and it had been snowing most of the night. Most roads were hazardous because they were not plowed. We had to travel twenty miles on back roads to the hospital. These roads definitely were not plowed. Joe took his time driving, and we arrived without event, and I still was not in labor.

The doctor said, I will have to induce labor to ward off a dry birth since it had been hours since your water broke. Finally, labor pains set in, but they were not intense. Several hours went by, and I was progressing slowly. The doctor decided to take his lunch break to watch the reinauguration of President Richard M. Nixon’s ceremony on television. Only a little while after the doctor left my room, I went into full blown labor, hard and painful. Finally got an epidural put in between labor pains, but it was tough to do.

The doctor came rushing in and examined me. He said, Take her to the delivery room right away. We no sooner got in there, he had me start pushing. I did not know how to do it properly. They did not explain to me how to push, so I was obstructing the birthing process. I was trying not to have a bowel movement but pushing with my lungs instead of my abdominal muscles. Finally, because my pushing was not sufficient, the doctor and nurse started pushing on my upper abdomen and had to push the baby out that way. I was in great pain on my right side during this, and it should not have been painful with an epidural. It was determined later the right kidney had torn loose and was now floating.

Just before the baby was born, the doctor asked what names we had chosen, and I said, Louis or Kathryn. We did not know the sex of the baby before it is born back then.

The doctor said, It’s a Louis! The nurse took the baby and put him in the glass bassinet. He was crying very weakly. He was three weeks early, only weighed five pounds, ten ounces and only seventeen and a half inches long with strawberry blonde hair. My reflection at the time, Just like in the dream when I was fifteen years old when God said, You will have a son, and he will live. The doctor said, Louis is small, but he did not have to go into the incubator, as was feared.

I was worn out. The doctor still had five other expectant mothers in the labor and delivery rooms that day after me. They had to move me out of the delivery room quickly because another woman was ready to come in. As I was being rolled into the hallway, the nurse came up beside me and tried to get me to take my baby, but I was too weak. She tucked my baby into my left arm and took me to my room. Shortly afterward, a nurse took the baby off to the nursery.

A little while later, the nurse brought my baby back to me in a bassinet and parked it next to my bed. I was stronger and better able to hold Louis. I was relieved he was a healthy baby, as I knew he would be all along. It was not just a hope; it was a profound spiritual knowing he would be okay.

---

³ Psalm 89:15 (WEB): Blessed are the people who learn to acclaim you. They walk in the light of your presence, Yahweh.

⁴ Revelations 21:4 (WEB): He (God) will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. The first things have passed away.

⁵ 2 Corinthians 5:6–8 (WEB): Therefore we are always confident, and know that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are courageous, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

⁶ 1 Corinthians 13:12 (WEB): For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will fully, even as I was also fully known.

⁷ Philippians 4:7 (WEB): And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. 1 Peter 1:8 (WEB): Whom, not having known, you love. In him, though now you don’t see him, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.

⁸ Revelation 12:7–8 (WEB): There was war in the sky. Michael and his angels made war on the dragon. The dragon and his angels made war. They didn’t prevail. No place was found for them any more in heaven.

⁹ Matthew 18:20 (WEB): For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them.

¹⁰ John 12:25 (WEB): He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life. Mark 8:35 (WEB): For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the sake of the Good News will save it.

¹¹ John 12:25 (WEB): He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life. Mark 8:35 (WEB): For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. And whoever will lose his life for my sake and the sake of the Good News will save it.

2

Miracle Birth of My Son Louis

I weighed 86 pounds before I got pregnant and was just 120 pounds just before giving birth. It was three days after the delivery when I was to be discharged from the hospital, and before releasing me, the nurses said they have to weigh me. Several nurses stood around watching the scale as I got on it, saying, You are the smallest mother we have ever seen just after giving birth. I was 103 pounds.

It