Mama Lilly...
Mama Lilly became a GetWell Friend in 1993 and would place an occasional order. She would always write a little letter, sharing details of her long life. And she would sign her letters "Mama Lilly." In 1998, she made a $100 donation. I sent her a "THANK YOU!" gift right away. A year later, summer of 1999, she sent another newsy letter and enclosed a $1,000 check. She wrote she had "just this moment" gotten around to opening my "THANK YOU!" package of a year ago and that she wanted to help. This kind of help happens so seldom. I can't tell you how wonderful it was to pay GetWell bills that day!
Then Mama Lilly invited me to visit her, telling me she needed someone to help her count her money and that she was not sure how much she had and that she wanted to help get "The Beautiful Joy Wagon" out to The People. I spent October and November with a respiratory cleansing. So, when The Wilderness Wagon was ready to roll in December, it was only 350 miles to her peaceful home in the hills of Oregon. I stayed 3 days and helped her clean off 8 layers of personal papers on her kitchen table! It took hours. And I had the experience of getting to know one the most fun, most delightful, most long-lived Hygienists I had ever met! Her vibrancy reminded me so much of Dr. Vetrano's liveliness!
But she wasn't all just "fun." Mama Lilly had a serious side, too. At age 89, she brought out an original copy of Dr. J.H. Tilden's Toxemia Explained. His picture, 2 inches square, was imbedded in the hard cover. The book was falling apart, the pages golden with age. And Mama Lilly's father had kept a studio-portrait picture of Dr. Tilden in the book. On the backside, he had written: "Dr. Tilden was a Dear, Good Soul. He saved your mother's life, when she was about 50 years old. She was near my 71 years when she died. Christ and Tilden loved the blessed, little ones. And a curse is put upon all who abuse babes and little children." Mama Lilly told how Dr. Tilden's magazine would come to their home. And of how she never went to doctors and never took medications. And of how she did not want to compromise her immune system by eating nuts that did not come in the shell. And she talked about The Victory Wagon.
Think of it! She had been raised by 19th Century Hygienists! And because of this fact, she had outlived
most everyone she had ever known in her younger years! Mama Lilly had no children. Her husband was gone. Tiger, Midnight, and Fluffy her 3 cats kept her company and entertained. And now, she was actively engaged in writing out checks to dozens of charitable organizations, 8 layers thick! She was fully intending to see some of her money go while she was still alive. She had left her inheritance to the loving and caring neighbors, a couple who shopped for her and checked in on her every day. They are in their 60s and both have cancer. They own a beautiful home on many wooded and pastured acres. Mama Lilly confided in me that she would like to help me get "The Joy Wagon" on the road with some of her money. For any money that would go to the neighbors would be spent on a backlog of cancer bills and she didn't even believe in doctors and their treatments, anyway. It didn't set right with her that all of her inheritance go to pay cancer bills! The irony of the whole thing is that neither the husband nor the wife were deeply interested in all her health knowledge. Oh, they would listen to her and let her talk about Hygiene. But they were not changing their ways. They are not "Health Seekers." It's hard to be a Health Seeker when you smoke and have the house filled with SAD food.
I left after 3 memorable days. Her $1,400 donation was larger than the GetWell bank account on that very day! That was my very first trip out The Barn Driveway with the express purpose of visiting GetWell Friends. I left to pick up my sister Catherine at The Seattle Airport. And on the last 60 miles home, the engine went out in The Wilderness Wagon. As we were limping and backfiring home, Cat offered a '74 Cadillac Victor had willed to her for a replacement engine. We had a wonderful Christmas.
In January, I was invited to see Mama Lilly, again. She was having the distinct feeling she was not going to live forever. I was going to tell her how much it would take to put The Victory Wagon on the road. I got to her house in early January. And I got on the phone with her bank. We found she had not been entering deposits or interest accumulations for at least 2 years. After subtracting the 5 outstanding checks from her balance, we found she had $15,000 more in the bank than she had thought! That was FUN! I had once helped my sister Cat
