Tim Frodsham, 14 August 2020
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Christians in general, rejoice when the Lord intervenes for the safety or salvation of His children. We are moved by these stories and celebrate His intervention in our lives. In other instances, it seems the heavens are closed and our petitions fall on deaf ears. We may even find ourselves asking, “Why could He not intercede?” As Joseph Smith lamented: “Where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?” 1 This seemingly paradoxical relationship with the Lord has shaped my own life.
We finished our Christmas morning rituals as a family and were driving from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington so my daughter could join my brother’s family on a vacation flight to New Zealand. Negotiating Highway 18, a two-lane road being converted piece-by-piece into a freeway to serve the increasing Seattle sprawl, I was driving well under the speed limit, something unusual for me. In the midst of heavy rains and hazardous road conditions caused by poor drainage in the construction zones, a minivan blew by me on the right, exceeding my speed by at least 30 miles an hour, and hit a standing pool of water. The van immediately hydroplaned and turned sideways. The beautiful symmetry of water sheeting over the vehicle, reminiscent of the water displays one can see in Las Vegas, captured my imagination for an instant, but so did thoughts of the tremendous energies involved and how quickly this may prove to be fatal.
My first instinct was to slam on the brakes. Instead, my foot moved to the accelerator and I glanced briefly down wondering why I had hit the gas. The hydroplaning car gained traction, shot sideways and slammed into a concrete construction barrier on the left side of the highway, directly in front of us. Bouncing off the concrete, it flew across both lanes of traffic and ricocheted off a similar barrier on the right. Traffic was steady, but no other cars were struck by the careening minivan. Rebounding off the right-hand barrier the car sped yet again across the freeway and back into my lane. My daughter, sitting in the back, watched in horror as the van missed by inches the rear of our accelerating vehicle.
We had threaded the needle, this out of control vehicle collided with concrete barriers both in front of and behind us. Had I not hit the accelerator, we would have been T-boned, or worse, run headlong into a vehicle smashed and stopped by the concrete barriers beside us. Had that happened, fatalities would have been inevitable, yet we emerged completely unscathed from this crash. It was not my conscious thought to hit the accelerator. My foot was there before I was even aware of the impending crash, and though I wanted to hit the brakes, my foot held fast. The Lord’s intervention that day has become part of our family lore, and we celebrate His tender mercy.
The Lord intervened again when I took my wife LaNae to the hospital to be treated for pneumonia. She was in such distress and her blood counts so low, the doctors advised me to inform my family that she would not survive the night. After intense supplication to the Lord, and with an overwhelming feeling of peace and wellbeing, I was prompted to inform only my son who is serving a mission. The Lord pays special attention to the prayers of His missionaries. Against all odds given by her doctors, she survived the pneumonia, only to find that the low blood counts and susceptibility to pneumonia were caused by Leukemia. Though the cancer was advanced, the oncologists were optimistic as it was a form of leukemia that responded well to the newest chemotherapies available. The chance of her emerging from this ordeal completely cancer free was 95%. If the cancer returned, the odds of a successful second treatment were again 95%. There was but a 1 in 400 chance that this cancer will prove fatal.
LaNae, the Relief Society President of our ward, pleaded not to be released and many lives were blessed through her compassion. Sisters of our ward received a knock at the door to find her, oxygen tank in tow, delivering treats or even welfare orders for those sisters too busy and too consumed in their own problems to pick them up themselves. Though perhaps a little slower, she continued her selfless life of service. After many transfusions and several scares due to complications and the advanced stages of the cancer, she recovered.
Again, we as a family rejoiced at His intervention in our behalf. We do not know why the Lord chose to spare her life while our prayers for the suffering of many around us seem to bounce off a heaven of brass and “there but for the grace of God go I.” 2 Were we more righteous? Definitely not. More deserving? I cannot even imagine. I echo Elder Holland: “such a sermon demands that I openly acknowledge the unearned, undeserved, unending blessings in my life, both temporal and spiritual.” 3
Four years later, we were headed to the oncologist for her last post chemotherapy appointment. If the tests were clean, she would be declared free of leukemia and returned to the normal population. No more monitoring. No more wondering. Heading to that appointment, I knew something is wrong because her stamina and vitality have been waning the previous months. Rather than pronounce her cancer free, the doctors determined that her leukemia has returned in full force. In addition, she also suffered from advanced ovarian cancer. Two unrelated cancers that required different chemotherapies.
While doctors were treating the ovarian cancer, the leukemia raged out of control, dropping her various blood counts to dangerous levels which made impossible additional treatments. Treating the leukemia weakened her further and the ovarian cancer began to advance. Through this ordeal, LaNae was blessed with the fasts and prayers of family, friends, and members of a concerned and loving ward and stake. Those prayers in her behalf appeared on the surface to be unanswered and the advance of the cancers was relentless. In the ensuing months, she received weekly blood transfusions and endured many trips to the hospital to treat the symptoms of her spreading cancers and weakened immune system. One visit to treat boils that erupt on her skin. Another to treat shingles that cover most of her body, and even infect her mouth, causing her to lose part of her tongue. Visits became routine to drain fluids that accumulate in her abdomen and lung cavity as the cancers spread. During all of this, I heard her complain only once. Out of convenience, I placed a cot in her downstairs “hospital room” to avoid nightly trips up and down the stairs, and just to be beside her. In the pre-dawn hours as I cared for her needs, she looked at me for a few moments, and in a quiet voice: “This is hard.” She passed away 11 months from her second diagnosis.
Why does the Lord choose to intervene so actively in cases such as our Christmas car incident and my wife’s initial diagnosis of pneumonia and leukemia, and yet the heavens appeared as a ceiling of lead when her cancers returned, spread, and relentlessly consumed her? I believe in all cases the Lord did intervene. In the first, He physically and quickly intervened to spare the lives of myself and my family. In the last instance, He intervened, not to physically heal my eternal companion, but to bind up the hearts and minds of her family, her friends, and many of her congregation. Our family grew and bonded together in ways I could have never imagined as we fought, prayed, and worked together for the well-being of our mother and wife. Prayers, service, and intervention flowed in a constant stream from inspired members of our ward who truly acted as “Latter-Day Saints.” Sweet and faithful sisters of our ward contrasted their own personal and family struggles to the trials of this compassionate, faithful, and uncomplaining daughter of God.
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. His dissent into the very jaws of hell to rescue us from pain and sin has given Him perfect empathy. As Elder Eyring stated: “God is close to us and aware of us and never hides from His faithful children.” 4. He understands our wants; He understands our needs, and most important of all, He understands our hearts. He has infinite capacity to bear our burdens, heal our hearts, and enlightened our minds. Again, quoting Elder Eyring: “Jesus Christ lives, knows us, watches over us, and cares for us. In moments of pain, loneliness, or confusion, we do not need to see Jesus Christ to know that He is aware of our circumstances and that His mission is to bless.” 4 I but dimly understand His purpose in the rescue of my family and yet the demise of my sweet wife. However, I see the hundreds who were touched by her life, her faith, and her trust in the Savior. She was an angel of mercy and the Lord continues to use her example in suffering to strengthen my family. I look forward to the day when I kneel at His feet with inspired recognition and understanding of His role, His perfect intervention, in my life and for my family.
- D&C 121:1
- “The Writings of John Bradford” edited by Aubrey Townsend
- “Are we all not beggars?” Elder Jeffrey R Holland, October 2014 General Conference
- “Where is the Pavilion” Elder Henry B Eyring, October 2012 General Conference
Copyright Tim Frodsham, latterdayaints.life, 2020
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