Part 10
"The Lady In Red"

The news about my cancer had been well spread by now. A lot of people were now asking how I was doing. They also said they would be praying for me. Now, I appreciated this act from most people. It let me know that people were thinking about me before they went to bed each night (or whenever they pray), and praying that God would heal me. I believe that this was the only way I could be healed, through God. No one person or church could heal my body and blood by themselves. So when people told me that they would be “praying for me”, it let me know that they were believing WITH God for my healing. This was not always the case however. Around the month of August, I became introduced to a lady that I will call “The Lady In Red”. I first met The Lady In Red after church one Sunday. As you know, throughout my chemotherapy I continued to go to church and play in the band. Well, after the band’s “post service jam”, I began to pack up my saxophone and get ready to drive home. As I was walking out of the sanctuary I heard a voice call “excuse me sir.” I turned around and saw a short old lady standing next to me. She was dressed entirely in “red”. She said to me, “do you mind if I talk with you for a while”. Now I was kind of in a hurry because I was going to go out to lunch with my parents and a friend that day, but since I am a pretty nice guy I told her, “sure”. She introduced herself to me (I forget her real name) and told me about herself. She began to explain to me that she has a special power (given to her by God) to “heal tumors”. She told me how she once met a man who had a tumor in his brain. Supposedly, this mad had gone from church to church to have his tumor healed. Finally, The Lady In Red found him and prayed for him at her house. A few weeks later, he went to the doctors and they told him that he doesn’t have a tumor anymore. She believed that because of her he was healed. She told me a few more stories on how she healed dozens of people who had tumors in their bodies and were not seeing any results from churches. As she was telling these stories to me I got a funny feeling in my stomach. Now, I didn’t want anything more than to be a perfectly healthy 20 year old again. So just the thought of not having to go to the doctors for 8 hours a day made my mouth drool. The thing was that I didn’t think that this lady was valid. I’m sure that the people she described were probably cured of cancer, or whatever symptom was wrong with them. I just didn’t think that they were healed directly from this lady. The way she said stuff made it seem that she believed the healing’s, that she has witnessed, were a result from her touch, not by the touch of God. She then asked me if I would come over sometime so she could heal me. I never told her “yes”, but gave her the impression that I was a little weary about the whole thing. She read my expressions correctly and wrote down her name and number on a piece of paper. She told me to call her so she could council me. I took the paper and went off to my car.

When I got to this restaurant, my dad asked me what that lady was talking to me about. I told him the whole story. Both of my parents also felt funny about the whole situation. My dad, being the hot tempered Puerto Rican that he is, told me to give him the piece of paper that she had given me so he could throw it away. I did.

The following week, The Lady In Red again waited for me after church. As I was packing my sax she sat and waited for me. My dad saw that she was there (I described her to him previously, so he recognized her) and came up to the stage to tell me, load enough for everyone to hear, “COME ON SO WE CAN GO OUT TO LUNCH.” Even though he did this, The Lady In Red still waited for me to leave. As I was walking outside she asked why I hadn’t called her. I told her that I had been busy (BUSY? Yeah right! I wasn’t working or going to school. I had all the time in the world.) and didn’t get a chance to. She again told me about her special power to heal tumors. I listened to her for a couple minutes until my dad made the save, “Cliff, come on your mother is waiting.” I excused myself from our conversation and left for lunch. The week after that, The Lady In Red AGAIN was waiting for me. Again I listened to her for a while and eventually got out of it somehow. In fact, The Lady In Red waited for me week, after week, after week. In the meantime, my mom had researched this lady and found out that she isn’t “all there”. I guess she went from church to church, seeking out sick people so she could heal them. I was told not to let her pray for me (by ourselves), because what she says is not of the Bible. Instead, I was told to simply thank her for the offer and ask her to pray for me on her own. The next time she waited for me I tried to use this tactic. She then got very angry and said, “WELL IF YOU DIE IT’S BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T LET ME HEAL YOU”. These words made me sick to my stomach. How could this lady say that to me. I knew that the possibility of dying was there, and I didn’t want to hear it. This lady has no idea what kind of pain I am feeling right now. She doesn’t know what I am thinking about when I am hooked up to an IV machine for 8 hours a day, while she is sitting at home baking cookies. How dare she say that to me! After she said this to me I walked off, not saying anything. She never waited for me after that. I saw her from time to time as the weeks progressed, but she never said anything to me. I found out later that she ended up in a nursing home.

I don’t see how a person, or a church (for that matter), could do that to someone who is at such a fragile state. “You won’t get healed unless I pray for you” or “you won’t be healed unless you go to our church and we pray for you.” I bet you that some people do get caught up by that bait. Sure, they go to the church and get prayed for, and then leave and carry on with their life. Do you think that they get called week after week by the church to see how they are doing? Probably not. They could very well die the next day, and the anointed church wouldn’t even know. But if they did get cured, I’m sure that very same church would want them to come over and share their testimony. "This young man once had cancer. He came to our church and now he his healed. Praise God!" Praise God? Yeah right. Praise yourself! That is why I love the church that I go to, By His Word Christian Center . Yeah, they (the band and choir) said a little prayer for me before each service, but they also continually monitored my progress. They called me, sent me letters, and visited me when I was hooked up to the IV machine. They were there with me, throughout my cancer treatment. The same goes with family and friends. Did The Lady In Red come to Group Health Hospital at 8:00am to see how was doing? No. People that are sick are not objects. They are normal people who are going through hard times. So to jerk them around like they are some type of object is completely wrong.

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