The Jack Miller Archive

Surprised by Grace: story of Rose Marie Miller, page 11.
She would lose her gall-bladder and right ovary.

Location: Albert Einstein Hospital, North Philadelphia

Because of our happy laughter, you might have thought the seven of us were party goers headed to a party. But we were not going to a party. It was in mid-March of 1972, the night before Rose Marie was to undergo major surgery; and we were her family, walking with her down a dimly lit corridor to the x-ray department of Albert Einstein Hospital in north Philadelphia.

Taking our cue from her carefree spirit, we treated the whole thing pretty much like a family outing. The only family members not there to take it all in were our eldest daughter Roseann and her husband Jim Trott. They were studying Japanese language and culture at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, in preparation for his two year tour of military duty in Japan. Our daughters Barbara, Ruth, and Keren were on her right, and Paul and Jill Hebden (soon to become Paul's wife) were on her left as we walked through the dungeon-like atmosphere of an old wing of the hospital. I was a step behind her and to her left. Her arms were around blond Jill and dark-haired Barbara.
She was slated to lose her gall bladder, her appendix, and her right ovary the next day at 9:00 A.M. I was touched by her downright panache as we walked together. I was also touched by fear in the back of my mind. It was sitting there like a small shadow. A friend had told me a few days before, "I know of two people who died from gall bladder surgery. Is Rose Marie aware of this?" She wasn't, and I didn't feel like handing on this dismal news.

Nearing the x-ray room, our family group entered the bright circle of light emanating from a nurses' station. Dressed in a full length maroon robe, Rose Marie moved with the easy grace of a queen. Then as the light fully illuminated her face, her blond hair gleamed like gold. Her face shown with a loveliness that was partly natural but seemed to me to merge with a beauty that arises from a healthy inner life.
Rose Marie's comment: "Jack is a romantic and an optimist in his attitude toward me. At this time I really was not wearing a crown of gold and I definitely did not have a healthy inner life.

He didn't know but hidden in me was a root of bitterness ready to surface once my body was weakened by the trauma of major surgery.
"This root of bitterness began a dozen years before in Jack's first pastorate in Stockton, California, in the San Joaquin Valley.