Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: HEALTH (10/13/16)
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TITLE: Fragmented into Wholeness | Previous Challenge Entry
By Hugh Houchin
10/20/16 -
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His life changed dramatically when his father went into the ministry, shortly after he turned eight. Hugh learned to detest the stigma of being a preacher’s kid and his lack of roots. They moved almost every three years.
After high school, he went to a denominational affiliated college and the bottom began to fall out of his life. Midterm of his sophomore year, because of behavior and grades, the Dean gave Hugh the alternative of transferring or being asked to leave the college.
Hugh quit.
He roomed with Andy, a fraternity brother drop out. Free of perceived authority, they followed the proverbial wine, women, and song syndrome.
In 1966, on a muggy August evening, in Andy’s new Buick Electra, he and Hugh met a couple of friends at a pub outside of town. When the establishment closed at 1:00 a.m. no one felt any pain.
Andy’s car spewed gravel as he and Hugh sped off.
Three months later, still in intensive care, Hugh awoke from a semi-coma. He gazed and pondered the body cast that bound him. He saw his left foot protrude from the plaster around his left leg. He stared at his right leg tied to the bed-rail; he couldn’t move it.
Later, they told him they kept it immobilized to keep him from kicking in response to pain that racked his body.
In traction, his right arm hung in a cast; he felt the tracheotomy tube that jutted from his neck.
He’d broken every rib and punctured both lungs. His right arm had a double compound fracture; the protruding bones broken off. Two rods of steel bridged the gaps.
Cut through his kneecap, only tendons and an artery served to hold his upper and lower leg together. It hung in traction, waiting for the infection from gangrene to disappear. Then, doctors would fuse the gap his kneecap once covered.
Hugh saw his parents. “What happened? Where am I?”
“In the hospital. Car wreck.”
“Andy?”
“He died.”
As Hugh could handle reality, he learned the details. Andy passed a car on a curve; his car went off the highway and slid 180 feet and hit a bridge. The car disintegrated into 3 pieces; he and Andy were thrown out.
When it left the road, the police estimated the car’s speed at 110 – 120 mph.
After logging eight months and 12 surgeries, the hospital dismissed Hugh. He weighed less than 100 pounds and limped because of his fused left knee. He went home with his parents to regain strength.
After a few months, he moved back to where he lived before. He lived with the friends he and Andy met at the bar that August night.
Did the experience settle Hugh down? No, he embellished the culture of the 1960’s and what it offered.
He found his niche managing nightclubs and restaurants and married one of his waitresses. They had five children. His wife often talked to him about going to church. Hugh said no.
Meanwhile, the Area Supervisor of Hugh’s restaurant became a Christian. He gave Hugh the Gospel message but, as a preacher’s kid, he had the answers and outmaneuvered his supervisor.
Regardless, for a convention in Kansas City, the supervisor made travel plans. He and Hugh would ride together to Kansas City, and Hugh would ride home with a believing manager. Going home, Hugh’s spiritual wholeness healed.
At that time Hugh and his wife were separated. She let him move back home.
Hugh’s body, though, could no longer handle the stress of being on his feet and he left the restaurant business. Starting another career, he and his family moved across the state.
Wish Hugh, his wife, and family lived happily ever after. However, now twenty-some years ago, he and his wife separated and divorced.
But, thanks to the grace of God, Hugh, his ex-wife, five children, spouses and 12 grandchildren get together throughout the year for most special events.
Hugh and his former wife remain friends.
God’s spiritually matured Hugh. Over the years he’s taught Sunday school, preached sermons, and been a deacon and elder. He thanks his exposure to God as a preacher’s kid for his spiritual bloom.
Proverbs 22: 6: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” NKJV
True Story
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Thank you for sharing your story.
A nicely told story. In one of the closing paragraphs you use a conversational style, "Wish Hugh, his wife and family..." It tripped me, as the rest of the story was not in this style. Now that's picky!
Thanks for sharing the reality of this man's life with us.