I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU

Daddy was working at the restaurant (Rodeway Inn....Elegant Bull) on HIlltop Drive. I went out to the rodeo grounds on a Saturday. It was the summer between 7th and 8th grade. Mom told me, "go there and no where else." I simply told her okay with all intentions of following her rules.

I went to the rodeo grounds, took care of the two horses that I privately adopted, Sugar and Pepper. Then as I rode my ten-speed away from there, I decided to detour to the restaurant. I wanted to see my Daddy. He worked so many hours that we didn't get to see him much. He'd be gone for work before we'd wake up and home from work after we'd gone to bed many times. It was always just Mom and us kids.

So, I rode out to the restaurant. Forgetting the rule that Mom had set on me before I left the house. I wanted to see Daddy.

I arrived the restaurant, but Dad wasn't there. One of their cooks, Mickey, was there. He said, "your Dad isn't here. I think he went home for lunch." Okay, you'd think the bells and light bulbs would have gone off in my head. "Go home to see Daddy." Nope, I was set on seeing him and I knew that I could see him at his work. So, there I stayed.

Mickey made a nice lobster for me to eat since he said that it would probably be a little while before he came back to work.

Dad returned. He saw me. He looked surprised. "You'd better call your Mother," he said. "She thought you were going to be home this afternoon." I felt that feeling of anxiety go through my body like a shivering shock that lasted for what seemed to be an eternity.

I called home. Moms words turned up the volume of that anxiety. "You had better get home right now young lady. And if you don't come straight home, you'll be in the worse trouble than you have ever been." I was shaking to near tears.

I get on my green Schwinn bicycle. The one that I bought with my own money earned from delivering newspapers. The bike cost me $100. That was a lot of money for a kid back in 1975.

I rode my bike to the end of Hilltop and Cypress avenue. I looked right towards home. Then I looked left and saw Mount Lassen in the distance. I sat there for a few moment looking left and right...shaking at the thought "I'd be in the worse trouble I'd ever been in," repeating in my head. I didn't want to be in trouble....I didn't want the painful spanking. So, I put my feet on the pedals and turned the bike left. Towards Mount Lassen.

I rode out past Palo Cedro. Through the "whoop-di-doo's" and on down the road to an unknown destination. All I knew is that I was headed towards Mount Lassen. I also knew that somewhere out in that area was where Bethel Church had their summer camp, and it was coming up in a few weeks. I had been there before and they had some awesome wooden cabins. I could stay in one of them until the camp started. There was a little river just outside of the camp that was loaded with trout that Stephen and I would catch by hand and whack the fish on the rocks so that Mom and Dad would be proud of their "Indian Fish Hunters."

What I didn't know was, Mineral was on a different highway than the one that I had chosen to ride on. I just rode towards the mountain.

It was getting late in the day. Since I wasn't wearing a watch, I didn't know really what time it was. I'd walk the bike...I'd ride it. I just kept going east, wondering by now where I was going to end up at for the night. Where was I going to sleep? What food would I eat? Never did I think that there were bears or wild cats out in the forest.

I was walking the bike along a wide portion of a dirt shoulder. An old yellow Volkswagen pulled up behind me. Those "slug-bug" type. It was an older man. Older to me at the time. Thinking about it now, he was probably no older than 30ish.

He asked me, "Where are you going?"

I quickly thought about his question and blurted out an answer.

"Um, my parents are camping at Lake McCumber. They needed supplies and sent me out to get them." Not realizing that I had no evidence of any supplies retrieved with me.

The man asked if he could help me by taking me to the camp since it would be getting dark soon. I accepted his offer. No fear at all as to the possibilities behind my choices.

He drove down the road. I don't remember much conversation at all. He turned down the road to the camp. I asked him to drop me off on the road since I didn't want my parents to get mad that I had ridden with a stranger. The man agreed and gladly stopped his car, took my bike off the bike rack on his car and let me go off to my intended destination.

I rode in to the camp. It was actually quite full. It was also very dark outside. I was thankful for my ride that I had gotten from that man.

I walk up to a camp space. It was an older man and woman. I simply ask them if I could stay with them tonight.

"Where is your family?" the woman asks.

"Oh, they will be here soon. I left early and they are coming in probably later." I tell them. One story on top of the other.

I look around their camp. They had warm, fluffy and cozy looking sleeping bags in their tent. I was getting so tired and I wanted to curl up in one of those so much.

"I'm sorry, we just don't have the room." the lady says.

I smiled and thanked them and turned my bike away from them in search of the next inviting looking camp spot.

One camp had a large deer hanging from a tree. Many large men were laughing and drinking around the campfire. They didn't notice me, so I just walked on.

After a few camps, I come across a group of senior citizens. They are in two campers and one tent. They are laughing and having fun. They all seemed nice. I walked in between the two campers that were backed up to each other. They notice me and take me by the arm.

"What are you doing here, honey?" one little lady asks me.

"Oh, I'm waiting for my family to show up," I repeat my story from earlier. It seemed to work, so I went with it.

"Are you hungry?" another asks.

"Yes," I tell them, trying not to show that my last meal was actually lunch earlier at my Daddy restaurant and after a long day, I was starving.

They give me a sandwich and I eat it slowly to savor the taste of it. They offer me some soda and before I knew it, I was laughing right along with them. It was going to be a good place to stay.

The joyful camp had some new visitors join in. It was the older couple from the first camp that I stopped at. The woman looked kind of angry yet concerned towards me.

"Young lady," she said, "come here a moment."

I get up slowly knowing that I was in trouble now. They take me and my bike to their camp. I didn't even get to thank the senior citizens for their sandwich and soda. I was just whisked away to see their camp disappear in the darkness behind me.

We arrive at the older couples camp. They had a sleeping bag open in their tent. The man said that I could sleep in there since I was probably exhausted. "How nice," I thought. The people were going to help me.

Then the woman came up to me and said, "I am sure that you have run away. I know that you have parents at home that are worried sick about you and your whereabouts. We both work with Search and Rescue and we are going to contact your parents." She said as she stood over me while I climbed slowly in to the sleeping bag.

"I want you to give me your parents phone number. I need to go to the KOA campground down the road because they are the only ones that have a payphone. So, the phone number you give me had better be right. If it isn't, you'll be in the worse trouble you have ever been in."

I shook terribly when I heard those words. Words that had now been repeated to me. First by my Mom, then by this woman.

She left, I crawled in to the sleeping bag while the man stayed outside at the picnic table. I don't remember him saying much at all while she was gone...just that I had drifted off to sleep and dreamed and hoped that Daddy would come pick me up and not Mom. I knew that if Dad picked me up, it would be a conversation that could be tolerable. If Mom picked me up, I would probably be dead before I got home.

Well, time slipped by since I was asleep most of the time. I could hear voices outside the tent. Then I heard a familiar voice. It was Daddy. He came out to get me. I was so happy. He put my bike in the van and we went home. Silence. Not much was said at all. Just that when we got on to Jay Street he told me, "I told Mom not to come down hard on you." I cried silently knowing that what I had done was wrong.

We got home and walked in the front door. Mom stood at the end of the hall at the end of the fireplace. Her arms were crossed. She looked like a giant as she tapped her fingers on her elbow. The scowl on her face made me feel like the walk through the hall took forever.

Mom simply said to me, "God was with you this time. He may not be with you next time."

I slipped past her to my bedroom at the right. I crawled in to bed and quietly sobbed in my pillow. I wished that I had turned right at Hilltop instead of left. I was happy to be home in my own bed and not a strangers. I was glad that I could eat food at my own table instead of having to catch fish in a stream and figuring out how to cook them. I told myself that I would never get in to trouble again.

A few days had gone by. The summer camp was coming upon us. Mom and Dad said that they would still allow me to go to camp since they had already arranged it for me to go. I was surprised that they'd let me go. That privilege didn't come without consequences, though. I was grounded while at home prior to and after the camp for a time that I can't remember right now. I just remember that is was a lifetime to me. But, I still got to go to camp.

A true lesson that I learned at camp was during our art class where we got to paint ceramic pictures and signs. I chose one that seemed to shine brighter than all of the other ceramic figures on the table to choose from. It was a scripture from the Bible. It later became one of my most favorite scriptures.

It said, "I Will Never Leave You Nor Forsake You. James 1:5" I painted the flowers a pretty red. The letter a bright blue and the background a light green. My little sign stayed with me for years later after that. However, I learned that God WAS with me during my time of running away, and that he WOULD be with me no matter what. What I didn't do was test that theory again. After that ordeal, I never ran away again. I wanted to be with Mom and Dad no matter how much trouble I got in to, because I was a kid. I wanted them to teach me how to be a better person, how to be a better adult.

Mom and I have talked about this freely later on in my adult years. She understood the reason why I did what I did. She knew that Daddy had put in many long hours at work and all I wanted to do was see him. Mom knew that she was the disciplinarian in the family...the strong arm of us kids. But in the end, Mom had more love to share with all of us than any of us could comprehend. Love that would last beyond her years.

Mom is still our rock...even after she is gone. Through God our Father and his strength, our love for our Mother is still strong with love.

We love you.