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April 19, 2003, is just ahead. Every year it brings back bleak memories of another April 19 six years ago that will forever be engraved in the minds of my family. It was a Saturday morning in 1997 when the phone rang down in our family room and Betty answered it. “Hi, Jamie.” The boys called at least once every week, without fail. “Your Dad was saying just this morning that today is an historical day. He says four years ago today, the Waco, Texas, fire took place. And two years ago, those guys bombed the building in Oklahoma City.” She seemed excited telling Jamie all this. “Your Dad said things like this usually always come in threes, and we should expect something else to happen today.”
We settled down to lunch an hour or so later, I thanked the Lord for the meal and the little hands that prepared it. As she always did when I finished, Betty said softly, “Thank you, Jesus!” She stretched in her chair, rubbed the back of her neck, and said, “That medicine I took awhile ago didn’t help my headache…” and she began to slip sideways out of her chair. I jumped up, caught her, and lowered her to the floor. “What’s the matter, Bet?” I yelled, “Are you OK? Can you hear me, Hon?” Her eyes were open and her heart was beating rapidly, but I couldn’t get her to respond. I quickly called 911, and within moments the emergency medical people were at the door. They worked over Betty, inserted an IV, and transported her to the local hospital. When I got there a few minutes later, they had her in x-ray. The doctor came out shaking his head. Her brain cavity was filled with blood, he said. She had suffered a massive stroke. She was pronounced dead at about 3:00 that afternoon. The third something had happened.
Remembering all this, it occurred to me to check and see if there were other happenings on April 19 to make the date stand out as a memorable day. The internet is a marvelous tool for such things. I discovered that on April 19, 1775, the first shots were fired at Lexington, MA, called “the shot heard round the world,” to begin the American war for independence.
On the same date in 1861, there was a riot in Baltimore, MD, resulting in what is reported to be the first bloodshed of the Civil War. Later in 1862, in my adopted North Carolina, the Confederates were building ironclads at Norfolk, VA. Union General Burnside, in order to prevent transfer of the ships to Albemarle Sound, planned to destroy the Dismal Swamp Canal locks. Burnside sent General Reno from Roanoke Island on April 18 to Elizabeth City where he disembarked the Federal troops on April 19 and marched north to the crossroads below South Mills, in Camden Co., NC. Groups of Confederates, under Col. Ambrose Wright’s command, delayed the Union troops until dark, and General Reno abandoned the effort and withdrew his troops to fight another day.
On April 19, 1906, the U.S. Army, without regard to constitutionally guaranteed rights, seized all the liquor in San Francisco; a singular tragedy, I suppose. Years later in 1943, a group of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto rebelled in a futile uprising, on April 19 against Nazi Storm Troopers rather than submitting to Hitler’s “Final Solution.” Soldiers and civilians alike were in mourning on April 19, 1945, when news arrived of the death of the popular little war correspondent, Ernie Pyle, the day before, the 18th, from a Japanese sniper bullet.
During the so-called Korean Conflict, President Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur as commander of the UN military forces in South Korea resulting, on April 19, 1951, in MacArthur’s famous “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away,” speech. To reach way back in history, it has been said amongst some respected biblical scholars that John the Baptist was born in 2 BC, on, guess what, April 19.
It seems, the day my Betty quickly passed away, on April 19,1997, is indeed an historical date, down through the years, for all things American. In addition, strangely enough, two more Harvill incidents have occurred on April 19. Interestingly for the Harvill clan, my son, Jamie, was born again as a believer in Jesus Christ on April 19, 1975, exactly two hundred years to the day after the initial shot was heard around the world, starting the American Revolutionary War. Also, his son, Josh, was saved on the same date in 1999, just two years after his Grandmother Harvill passed away.
On a lighter side, our local newspaper here in Forest City is advertising three separate happenings to take place in our area on Saturday, April 19, this year. Among them: the 57th running of the Blockhouse Steeplechase in Tryon; the bluegrass band, Whistle Pig, will stomp at the Cajon Pig up in Chimney Rock; and the Triad Band is scheduled to perform at the Legal Grounds in Rutherfordton, around the corner from the courthouse. It occurred to me again for the first time that it was another Saturday when my Betty whispered, “Thank you, Jesus,” and slipped away from me to be with her Lord. Things do seem to happen in threes.