This book contains the memoirs of Bernett Padgett, who grew up in rural Mississippi. He tells of his childhood adventures and his faith in God. After graduating college, he joined the Air Force, and they sent him to a university to study meteorology. He served as a meteorologist in the Korean War and, after his enlistment was over, for the National Weather Service.
When he was seventy years old, Bernett had bypass surgery. Due to complications after the surgery, both of Bernett’s legs had to be amputated below the knees. Instead of giving up, Bernett trusted in God and learned to walk with two prosthetics. He focused on what he could do, not what he couldn’t do.
Bernett wrote the first part of the book, and his wife, Betty, finished his story after God called him home.
The part of the book that the reader will be most impacted by are the chapters about Bernett’s medical crisis, how he dealt with having to walk on two prosthetics, and his going home to heaven.
When Daddy was preaching, I often went home on Sunday afternoon with one of the boys [from the church] to play. One boy and his brothers had a vine that they used to swing across a big ditch. I was going to be smart and act like Tarzan. The vine was hanging down in the middle of the ditch. I tried to jump and catch the vine and swing across the ditch. Bad mistake! I missed the vine and fell to the bottom of the ditch, knocking the wind out of myself and banging myself up good. I haven’t tried that since.
One weekend I went home with another boy, and his brothers showed me how they climbed a pine tree, grabbed the top of it, and then slowly swung down to the ground. I thought I would try it, so I climbed up a small pine tree, grabbed the top, and swung out. The only problem was that the top of the pine tree broke, and down I came with a thud! You learn from all your mistakes. I won’t try that again.
Since we did not have much money back then, we had to make things to play with. One Sunday, one of the boys showed me how to make a wooden truck from a two-by-four. We played with these toys, as other kids would have with bought toys. If there was something we wanted, we made it and had as much (or more) fun as kids who had the money to buy ready-made things.
We made our own kites to fly, our guns to play cowboys and Indians with, and wooden wagons, which we rode down hills in. One of the boys had made a wagon. Just west of his house were some hills that we would ride down. It was scary because there were trees on both sides. If you did not go straight, then you could hit a tree.
We also made stilts to walk on, which has helped me today, as I lost both legs when I had bypass surgery, and I now walk on two artificial legs.