Hard Times - The True Story - Part 12

He had three paths to choose for his life: his own, Satan’s plan, or God’s. The day he walked back into his wife's and son's lives, he chose the High Road - but took many detours down Compromise Alley. His first-born son, who Momma named “Earl”, was a thorn in Daddy’s ego. The boy looked just like him - but talked “funny”.  Daddy was ashamed of his namesake - and despised the child‘s handicap. Big Earl stuttered - on occasion - but didn’t sound “stupid” like his son did…

Shortly after he came home to his wife and child, Earl tried to do the “right” things - like get a “normal” job. He worked at a gas station, and carried a lunch pail. He hated it - but he did it anyway. He would even take his son to the park to push him on the swings - but would forbid Little Earl to talk. It was at the park where Daddy’s heart was changed…

Big Earl was pushing his son on a swing, and the child cried out: “Da-ee. Come ‘ere.” Daddy stopped pushing the swing, and confronted his son. “I told you, ’don’t talk’. What? Are you stupid?”

The child continued, “Clo-er, Da-ee”, and gestured to his little mouth. Angry, but relenting, Daddy leaned in close to the child’s lips - and Little Earl spat right in his face. All of Big Earl’s rage, bitterness, and resentment toward his namesake erupted. He took the swing by its chain links and launched it high into the air. Little Earl was hurled upward so forcefully that his hands slipped from the swing. His little body was thrown as high as the tall trees behind him. He fell from the air to the hard ground, breaking his leg. After it healed, Little Earl had a permanent and noticeable limp which never let him - or his daddy - forget that day…

The doctor who treated Little Earl’s leg, observed that he did not have a speech impediment - the boy was “tongue-tied”. (Momma didn’t have money to take her son to doctors, so this had not been diagnosed.) After Little Earl’s tongue was “clipped”, he refused to talk at all…for nearly two years.

Big Earl rued that day at the park all of his life and carried the pain of his son’s hatred as his just punishment. But he loved the boy - not with “guilt” love - but with a broken heart determined to love his son at all costs…

In 1952, when Little Earl was a young teen, he contracted polio. The same leg with the limp became paralyzed and began to atrophy. Amputation was the medical solution. Daddy walked into the hospital the morning of the surgery and rescued his son from “the knife”. Before anybody could stop him, he lifted Little Earl up from his bed, and carried him in his arms out of the hospital. He walked over a mile carrying his son home. Little Earl battled the polio - with his daddy beside him every “step“ of the way. He survived and landed on two feet. The limp survived, too…

There is a song Daddy would sing that always made him cry…

“You always hurt the one you love - the one you shouldn’t hurt at all…

You always pick the sweetest rose, and crush it ‘til the petals fall.”

Big Earl had a limp in his heart…