Mama Lilly...
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find $10,000 she didn't know she had. Amazing to have the same experience in one lifetime! We literally danced around her living room, with the cats never seeing Mama Lilly so happy!
And so, we settled down. And Mama Lilly asked how much I wanted. I explained, first of all, that any help she could offer, I would pay back 3-fold when I get The YearBook marketed. And then I explained that with this help, I could work uninterrupted, with what comes in the orders and other GetWell Friends' help. I estimated I could go out in The Wagon if I had $10,000. She offered $20,000. But I said 10 would be enough. And this would only be cutting into the neighbor inheritance by a small fraction. I certainly did not want to be greedy! She was about as happy as I have ever seen anyone in my whole life to extend this help. And she inquired with twinkling eyes: "Do you know how much fun it is to be your mother?"
Because God had stepped in one year earlier with a $10,000 contribution that had literally saved my life, and because I had spent that entire year since then doing the best I could to get everything in position and motion to finally go out to America and help The People, I just in a childlike joy and simplicity accepted this $10,000 check as a contribution that would now be used to go out and literally save others in large and small ways. I left that night to keep another appointment and to return the next day with some supplies Mama Lilly had requested. I was overflowing with gratitude and awe and peace and joy. How could I possibly describe to you, Dear GetWell Friends? I was lifted up into the CLOUDS! I was flying High! I was seeing the next 6 months unfold ahead of me like a moving picture made in Heaven: $2,000 for a gas fund; $2,000 for insurance; $2,000 for many on-the-road expenses of food, phone, travel home to fill monthly orders, and so on; with $4,000 left to make the $574 monthly Victory Wagon payments. The Algae, the in-coming orders, and GetWell Friends' contributions could meet The Barn expenses. In 6 months, I would have "The Victory Wagon Travels Log" of interviews and pictures with GetWell Friends. And I would beshowing them to bookstore dignitaries. The first to sign a contract would have my agreement to travel to their stores around The Nation for book signing and for teaching, 10 days out of every month, for a one year period.
I was flying High. How else can I best put it? For these 6 months, I would have only 1 long-awaited responsibility other than marketing: get out Common Health Sense #3. For these 6 months, I would work on
The Health Seekers' Beverage Book 2 hours a day. For these 6 months, I would travel back to The Barn every 4 - 6 weeks to fill orders. For these 6 months, I would send you GetWell Friends short, news-filled letter that take only a few hours to prepare. For these 6 months, I would not be engaged in preparing big packages like this one today which took 2 months to ready. For these 6 months, I could work UNINTERRUPTED. I could focus totally and completely on "The Big Picture of Marketing" without having to be concerned with how I was going to pay the monthly bills.
Mama Lilly's grand gesture to The American People and her love for them and her respect for Natural Hygiene along with what you GetWell Friends were able to do in orders and donations would fund me to work, UNINTERRUPTED, to bring The Health Seekers' YearBook to The People's attention for their study and betterment. Yes, I was lifted up into the CLOUDS! All I could see was how the 14 years of struggle and sacrifice and learning and maturing I have gone though would now pay off for all, as it unfolded for these next 6 months. And how we could finally help really help improve the well-being of every American whom we could inspire to inquire about just what it really takes to get WELL REALLY WELL! My heart was floating up in those CLOUDS, praising and thanking The Lord! No drug on Earth could compare to the expansive and elevated 6 month Plan, now made possible!
All that night and up until I went to Mama Lilly's bank the next day, before returning to her home, I refused to listen to The Voice of Discouragement that called up to me in those clouds: "This is all too good to be true, YOU KNOW." I answered, in my heart, that mean-spirited Voice with what my friend and Counselor Jan Franklin had told me about when she travels to minister: "NO EXPECTATIONS." (Still, when check is in hand, given by invitation and with such joy just 12 hours previous, one could tend to expect it would cash.) When the bank teller told me a "Stop Payment" had been put on the check, a sharp pain jolted my heart and neurotransmitters of disappointment flooded me from head to toe. I knew exactly what had happened. And, God willing, I was not going to let it destroy a beautiful friendship.
When I got to Mama Lilly's, the neighbor friend who stands to inherit the vast amount of her money took over. He did the talking. Mama Lilly was able to get out, most apologetically, that she had had "a change of heart." I had already prayed about the situation for 2 hours. I was disappointed. But I was fine. And I certainly was not going to bring discord to these people's homes.
