The author, Robert Russell, lives in Mt. Gilead.

Aug. 22, 2018, was a day like every other day; rise up and pray, shower, dress, prepare a lite breakfast – milk and cereal, orange juice, banana, a handful of nuts. Just a normal morning. I was feeling good healthwise, and it was reinforced by the good medical report that I had recently received from the VA following my extensive bloodwork. But around 11 a.m., with only slider shoes and my pants on, and no shirt or hat, I stepped outside to do a little yard work; to cut back small new trees before they grew and became tall trees. They were a distraction in my backup camera on my car when I backed up the car to turn around. I was doing this work no more than five feet from my driveway and about 15 feet from my car, and my car was about 25 feet from the house. 

Only a few minutes into my yard work my body began to feel different. I stopped swinging the ax to rest, although I was not tired; I let my blood relax. I only grew worse. My stomach felt upset, then my left arm started going numb. I thought “heart attack,” so I moved toward my car but I was only able to take three stubble-steps before it got unbearable to walk any farther. I thought I was going to fall because I was so tired and my whole left side was numb with a tingling hurting, so I threw the ax to my right side so I wouldn’t fall on it. 

This beautiful bright morning quickly turned cloudy dark; my eyes saw everything diminish. Tiredness pushed me down to my knees to rest and my body started raining big drops of sweat. Then I started hurling up all my breakfast. I thought to myself, “This is the big one.” Tiredness pushed me farther to the ground and I laid down flat, feeling that I was going to die. Even though I am a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and a servant, this was still a time to pray to make sure. While dry heaving and foaming from my mouth and nose mixed with mucus made it hard to breath, I prayed, “God, if there is anyone that I have offended, please forgive me, and if I have done You wrong and sinned against You, I am sorry, please forgive me.” I cleaned my nose with dead leaves as best as I could and I tried to clear my throat of foaming.

With my life flashing before me, the Lord didn’t reveal anything I needed to be forgiven for. Having already repented for my sins many days before, I felt only peace between us. I was going to lay my head down to prepare to die, but when I laid down a stick stuck in my jaw. “I can’t let anyone find me like this,” I told myself. “I’ve got to look pretty when they find me.” So I used my chin to sweep away the stick, then I laid my head down and listened to myself fighting to breathe. Somehow, I knew I was about to take my last breath and I said, “This is my last one.” 

And I was dead. At least I thought I was. But I was awakened by a loud, shrieking sound. Behind me about 20 feet away was a large black turkey vulture calling out to the vultures that he had found some fresh meat. I slapped the ground with my right hand, “Get away from here, I am not dead yet.” It flew away. Then a quick thought flashed through my brain. I hated that I was still alive. If life wasn’t hard enough already it was going to be difficult to live this way. How was I going to pay bills?

I knew the time to be about 5 to 6 p.m., because I heard the late bus pass my driveway with kids who stay over after school for extra help. And then I had more problems. I had laid down close to an ant hill and my back was covered with ants, plus I had been laying there in the direct sun. Trying to move exhausted me, so I went back to sleep. I would try to move several more times only to fall back to sleep again. One last time after I woke up, I put together my thoughts before I moved, trying to figure out how I could move from where I was, how I could get these ants off my back, how to move without getting in my own vomit.

With all my thoughts put together, avoiding rolling in my vomit was not possible. Not able to get up or crawl, I had to roll. So I pushed hard and I rolled to the right directly into my vomit. Able to control my roll, my body flopped hard on my back. Which was good, because I landed on the ants that were on my back, causing them to scatter. I was moving away from their nest and they felt threatened. So between the rolling and the salt water from the sweat on my back, they left. But still I dealt with the exhaustion, so I had to lay my head down to rest.

I was only feet from my car that is equipped with OnStar, but I didn’t make it to my car until late that night and, because of my weakness, I couldn’t pull myself in the car. At this time I was rolling on the ground over crusher run gravel and the rocks were cutting into my skin. 

I guess this would be a good time to explain a few things: I live alone and I only meant to be outside for a few minutes, so I didn’t put a shirt on and I didn’t take my cell phone with me. You can’t see my home from the road, so no one could see me. The house next door is not that close to me so when I cried out for help, no one heard me. Having never been sick in my life, no one expected me to fall ill and since we live a simple life, everyone just does their own thing, not bothering each other much.

My next idea was trying to make it to my house; maybe I could get to my cell phone. It was only another short distance from my car to the house, but that challenge proved to be even harder, trying to roll over sharp rocks and up a small hill, from the rocks to grass. With my back badly bitten by the ants and suffering from sunburn, it was now dark and my new predator was the mosquitoes. And they ravaged my body without mercy. I made it to the grass but I was completely tired, so I laid my head down on the grass to sleep. Shortly afterward I was awakened when something crawled in my ear. I tried to put my finger in my ear but that only made whatever that was go deeper into my ear, so I slapped my head on the other side and eventually it came out. So, to get rest, I had to lay my head on the back side of my hand.

During one of my resting moments I remembered the story of Paul and Silas, so I prayed to God and sang a few songs. Then I yelled out loudly, “Satan, you can do whatever you want to this body but my soul belongs to the Lord.” From that morning until the later hours of this new morning, I had not used the bathroom yet, knowing that once I emptied my bladder, my body would immediately fill it back up, and because I had been without water for a long time, I needed to reserve what I had on the inside. The struggle to get to the house continued amid the mosquitoes biting. At about 6 or 7 a.m. that morning – the morning school bus sound gave me the estimated time – I made it to my front porch, and fought to push myself in a setting position. 

Once I got myself in position, I reached back with my right hand to pull my body up the stairs. I lost balance and fell forward on my face to the ground. Angry and disgusted with myself, I just laid there and thought, “Whatever will be, will be.” So I just laid there looking into the sky. An hour or so later I heard a truck engine roaring up my driveway. I knew who drove a vehicle that sounded like that; it was my brother-in-law. We cut the grass at church together, and I had left a message on his phone Tuesday that we were going to cut the church grass Thursday. Because I didn’t show up at the meeting place, he decided to come to my house. (I am always on time, and mostly early. It pays to be the same way all the time.) 

He thought the man on the ground was a drunk, because people know I’m a clean freak and would never lay on the ground, especially not without a shirt on. But, to his surprise, it was me, barely able to talk, dirty, scarring all over my body, half dressed and bladder about to burst. He called an ambulance and at about 8:30 a.m. they arrived and transported me to Albemarle. From Albemarle they transported me to Concord. It wasn’t until I got settled in Concord until they relieved my bladder. What. A. Relief. It was in Albemarle that they fully discovered I had a stroke and because I was without medical care for so long, my recovery is a long journey.