Letter to the editor: My son with appendicitis makes a full recovery.

Back in 1969, my 6-year-old son Jimmy kept getting sick. Doctors said the stomach virus had returned. Earlier in the summer, NWMS (Nazareth World Mission Society) held its annual conference in Colombia. I was also one of the representatives. My regular babysitter was away for a few weeks. I asked her husband’s aunt Cora Kirby, who lived around the corner, if she could stay with her children while I was gone. My husband Jim worked the Sumter Dairy route.

When I got home, no one was there. I went to her mother’s place, but no one was there. When they get home, her sister-in-law Ann Coleman comes out and tells them that Jimmy’s appendix has burst and they are all in the hospital.

I got in the car and headed to the hospital. My thoughts went wild. I shouldn’t have left him while he was sick. I heard a voice say, “You were doing my job. I’m taking care of Jimmy.” When I got to the hospital, my mom (Tootsie Bryant) was waiting outside the operating room. She said Jim took Brenda and Tim to the waiting room.

The doctor came out and said the surgery was successful. His appendix had burst, but he wasn’t going anywhere, as if he were in a plastic bag. However, Jimmy hasn’t woken up. He should be fine soon.

They put him in a room. I was standing beside him and my mother was at the foot of the bed. The nurses told me to keep trying to wake him up.

My mother’s pastor, the Rev. Dewey Floyd, passed by in the hallway and met my mother. He said, “Hey, Tot, why are you here?”

She told him about Jimmy. He came into the room and asked if he could pray. He grabbed Jimmy’s toes, shook them, and said, “Let’s pray.” Jimmy said, “Hello, Brother Dewey.”

I later learned that Aunt Cora had a younger brother who died of a ruptured appendix. She knew all the symptoms. She was being told what to do. She made sure to tell Jim what to do and how to do it. Needless to say, Jimmy made a full recovery. He is in his 61st year and lives with his family on Carnaza Island in the Philippines.

betty coleman

sumter