A Letter To The Younger Me – Part Two

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If you missed part one please tap here to read.

One day, while sitting on the front veranda of his little miner’s cottage in that faraway country, he had decided to kill himself with his air force revolver.  Daddy was sad because he missed Mommy and all four of his children.  He was afraid he’d never see you again, so he just wanted to die.  Reaching for his revolver, a clanking noise made him look up.  To his surprise, he saw an elderly priest on an old bicycle!  “Excuse me.” The priest gasped, “Do you have a glass of water for a very hot and thirsty priest?” Daddy was so surprised; he fumbled with the revolver tucking it under his seat, so the priest would not see it and then got up to fetch a glass of water for him.

Daddy and the Priest began talking; Daddy told him about his life, Mommy, and his children.  He told the priest about how Mommy’s mother died when she was only twelve years old and how she was attacked by a man one day on her way back from school.  He also told the priest how her brother died in the desert during the Great War when he was only nineteen.  Daddy said she drank the horrible stuff from the brown bottle because of all these things. 

It was the beginning of a lovely friendship.  This friendship changed not only Daddy but all your lives.  The priest told Daddy he should return home, fetch his wife and children, and bring them to live with him at the mine.  The priest wrote Mommy a letter explaining what had happened and told her what he and Daddy had discussed.

Mommy never told you about the letter, so you were very taken aback when you heard a car hooting at the gate one December day, and you all rushed out to see what was going on.  What a beautiful surprise!

Your Daddy drove in through the front gate in a shiny new car, not only your Daddy but Father Christmas!  He had filled his car with all the most exciting toys and other presents.  It was the best Christmas of your lives, and Mommy never again drank any of that horrible stuff in the brown bottle.

You asked your Daddy if he would stay, and he replied that he was waiting for a few days, then he would be leaving again.  But he was going to talk to Mommy about all of you coming live with him in this faraway country where he was a miner.  It was a country that had good-looking shiny new cars and exciting toys.

Well, the day finally came when a taxi arrived to fetch all of you, and Momma waved you goodbye.  You felt you wanted to cry because you knew that you would miss Momma very much, but you didn’t wish your younger brothers to see you weep, and besides, you were on your way to see your Daddy!

You had never traveled on a train out of the country before, only the trains that took you to school, so this was a real adventure.  You were even going to sleep three nights on this train.  You felt like crying again because you wondered what your bed at home would be feeling without you tucked in on top of it.  But then you began to think of your Daddy, coming to fetch you in one of those shiny new cars.

At first, it was exciting on the train; you loved the smell inside the compartment; Mommy explained that it came from the green leather upholstery.  You didn’t know what that meant, but you liked it anyway.  You played in the corridor along the big coach with your brothers, the twins, Robert and James, and their older brother, Michael, but you, David, were the boss – the big brother.  One time you went out the coach door to see what the next coach was like, and suddenly a loud voice behind you shouted, “Oi!  Where do you think you are going, my lad?” It was the conductor, and he gave you a right ticking off, so you never did that again.

Sometimes the train would stop at little stations along the way, and you thought it strange that these stations had no platforms; then you noticed that the only reason the train had stopped was not to pick up or drop off passengers, but rather, crates of things, milk cans and once – two bearded goats!  There were two massive steam engines because your train had lots of coaches, and these were called Garrets.  They were starving and thirsty, always taking on coal and water.  There were not many towns along the way, just lots and lots of bush veld, and it was scorching.

After the second day, it wasn’t exciting anymore, and both your brothers and you began arguing and fighting.  Poor Mommy, she got angry and forbade you to ask, “How much longer to go?” She used to say to you, “When your Father comes to pick us up, I’m going to tell him how badly-behaved you boys were!” you begged her forgiveness and pleaded with her not to tell Daddy.

In the afternoon of the fourth day, the conductor came down the corridor ringing a bell and, in a loud voice, told everyone that the train was arriving in one hour.

Mommy called all of you into the compartment and got you dressed smartly in the new clothes Momma had bought for you before leaving, so you would all look clean and tidy for your Daddy.

On arrival, your eyes searched the crowds for Daddy, and seeing him, you thought he looked so bright and handsome.  Once the hugs and kisses were over, the porters carried your luggage to a shiny new car.

Little David, you will find out, as you grow older, that your new life with Daddy and Mommy was splendid.  Momma would visit you all at least once a year, and you were a happy family in this exciting new country.

You will still experience pain and sorrow.  Suffering as well as you grow older, but you will understand it helps you appreciate and love all the different people you meet on this magnificent long road of life.

You would never be the priest you wanted to be, but you would be a missionary who traveled worldwide, encouraging wounded and broken souls to a more vital life.  You would be a man with great compassion and understanding of those whose lives were crushed in prisons, tormented by drugs, and left with no hope but a longing for a quick death.  You will marry; be blessed with two fine sons and your little daughter, who between them would present you with eight grandchildren – and one great-grandson.

Little David, you who is me and I who is you, don’t cry for Mommy because your fears will never come to pass; she will die peacefully in late life, surrounded by the love of her now six sons, their wives, nineteen grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren.

God has saved your many tears in a bottle, which He will show you one day, and then you will know that your prayers to ‘Gentle Jesus’ were not in vain.

I love you very much.

Your older you,

David.