Answer To Prayers? Divine Appointment? Both?

By Chuck Cooper
(June 22, 2007)


Her entire family was absolutely thrilled when her physicians in Illinois declared in late November 1975 that the radioactive gold implanted to treat her two-year fight against uterine cancer appeared to be working! In fact, her docs said her strength had improved so much that she could even take a plane trip to her native Georgia to visit her sister Helen and other relatives. Although requiring assistance, she and her husband boarded a flight from Peoria to Atlanta arriving safely at Helen’s home in nearby Lithonia.

Answer to prayers? Divine appointment? Both? Read on. You decide.

The day following her arrival she was visited by her oldest son and his family from Athens, GA and other relatives in the area. The whole Georgia family was literally shocked to see how much weight she had lost and how gaunt she appeared and how weak she seemed. Her ever-present bucket was a reminder that the radioactivity still caused recurrent, periodic vomiting.

The son said later that he might not have recognized her had he not known in advance that she was there reclining on Helen’s sofa. Only her sweet, loving smile was recognizable to him and his family although her facial expressions often betrayed her obvious pain.

Conversations with her were difficult and frequently interrupted by her drifting into sudden naps, leaving the family wondering if she could hear their conversation
while being careful not to awaken or upset her by what she may overhear.

When preparing to return to Athens that evening, the son asked what he could bring her or what she wanted to do the next day.

With alarming vigor and surprising alertness, she blurted: “Take me to Stone Mountain; I want to go to Stone Mountain.” Promising to return the next morning, the son, with tears in his eyes, silently kissed her on her cheek and left.

She was bright and cheerful the next morning and was obviously excited when the son showed her the borrowed motor home he had parked in Helen’s driveway. “You are going to see Stone Mountain in style today,” he teased her.

Stone Mountain was his ill mother’s favorite place in the whole world. She loved that mountain. As children living in the Atlanta area, she and Helen often visited the mountain and viewed the early stages of the Confederate Memorial carving depicting Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee, and General Thomas Stonewall Jackson on their famous horses.

Too, the son also fondly remembered his summer vacations in Atlanta and the annual trips to the mountain with his siblings and cousins. On each visit they climbed with a family picnic basket and stared in wonder at the sites below. The children looked forward to that outing with excited anticipation, particularly because it became a tradition among family members to purchase a nickel Coca Cola from a washtub filled with ice at an old wooden shack which stood at the base of the walkup trail. That was in the Fifties - years before the carving was completed, long before beautiful Stone Mountain Park was created and when the shack was the only “attraction” around.

So, this outing with his ill Mother and her family was a special event for all of them. With the Mother silently gazing out the motor home’s large picture window at her beloved Stone Mountain and reminiscing about her childhood and family adventures there, it became obvious to all aboard the vehicle that this was a very “special” day together.

Having circled halfway around the mountain, the Mother became violently ill, vomiting uncontrollably, sweating profusely from an elevated body temperature, and moaning with pain.

Aborting the remainder of the trip, the son hurriedly returned to Aunt Helen’s house where she placed an urgent call to her doctor. He ordered the Mother to Dekalb General Hospital immediately and initiated tests right away.

The next morning, after consulting with her physicians in Illinois and analyzing the medical tests he had ordered the previous evening, the doctor informed the family that it was his opinion that during previous surgeries the Mother’s stomach had become twisted and that she would need surgery to correct the difficulty. The problem was that she needed to regain some strength before surgery could be performed.

Several days later the surgery was begun. It was then that the surgeons discovered a large, inoperable mass in her stomach and along her intestines. He advised the family to prepare for her death.

Late on the evening of December 19, 1975, Polly Dupree Cooper of Dooly County (Vienna/Unadilla) GA, age 61, died at Dekalb General Hospital in Decatur, GA.

She was my Mom!

Author’s Note: In the days immediately following Mom’s death, Dad revealed to all of us that Mom had persistently begged him to bring her to Atlanta. He believed to his dying day that Mom knew she was dying and wanted to see Stone Mountain one last time and then die in her native Georgia.

So, were Mom’s final days and ultimate death in Georgia an answer to her prayers? Did she have a Divine Appointment with God in Atlanta for her home going? I think both!

Post-Script: Fast forward nearly 32 years. Stone Mountain has become a very beloved place for both me and my wife, Sue, too. You see, we are now full-time RVers and are currently seasonal employees at Stone Mountain Park. Our RV spot in the Park’s campground faces the mountain where we can see it daily. It is surreal to see that mountain every day and to understand how special this place was to Mom and is now to us.

There is not a day that goes by that I don’t reminisce about my Mother and Aunt Helen, now deceased, and the fun times we had in days gone by. My, how both of them influenced my life. My, how this mountain is a reminder of the Christian heritage I have. My, how close I feel to both of them.

Somehow, they seem here, too!

(END)