Mercur in 1903 with the Mercur Mine in the backgroung
(This
occurred in 1907, less than a year after Joseph Goates, husband to Clara and
father to Lorin, had passed away with typhoid.)
After we had lived in Lehi but a short time Aunt Blanche and Aunt Mable,
younger sisters of my father, wanted to go out to the mining town of Mercur to
visit with friends and relative and go to a dance while there. In talking to
Aunt Blanche not too many years ago when she was in a rest home in Salt Lake
City, shortly before she passed away, she told us she felt it would be good for
Mother to go with them. I learned she invited Mother and took care of all the
expenses, so Mother and we four children went along. My memory doesn't seem to
be as sharp as my twin’s. Warren remembers much of the trip, I very little. I
realize now why, I was severely injured and in the hospital. We went by train
as far as we could go. Then it was necessary to go the rest of the way in a
horse-drawn carriage. It was quite a distance uphill to the town of
Mercur. As we were riding along some
felt the driver was making the horses travel too fast for the condition of the
winding road. He could even have been drinking. Nevertheless, he did lose
control and we all rolled down a dugway landing in a heap. I must have landed
at the bottom of the pile. I was crushed severely and had two bad head gashes.
We who were seriously hurt were taken to the hospital. Three doctors said I
could not live. Mother, with all she had been through must have been frantic.
Someone thinking it would help to quiet her nerves offered her a cup of tea.
She got the cup to her lips. At that moment she heard a voice say to her,
"If you will not drink this tea your son shall live." She immediately
refused to drink it.
I was a
long time getting over this accident, but my life was spared. I remember so vividly when I was well enough
to be outside playing with a sturdy iron toy, a team of horses and a wagon.
Later I learned this toy was given to me by Uncle Will and Aunt Rachel Wing.
They had given this toy to their son Eldon. He had died. How kind of them to
let me have it. Later when Mother told me about hearing this voice it made a
lasting impression on me. Oh, how thankful I am that Mother was obedient in
keeping the Word of Wisdom. All my life I've tried to keep the Lord's law of
health. Today, enjoying good health, I am living proof the Lord keeps His
promises. (I will soon be seventy and have lived my life with my heart more in
the center of my body because of that accident.)
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