Mercy for Me
The True Story of a Couple on a Journey through the Valley of the Shadow of Death
by
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December 19, 2011, was my sixty-fourth birthday.
In the morning Ruth and I drove twenty-eight miles east to Wibaux, MT, to enjoy coffee at the new Testarossa. It was a small coffee shop, and, as was usual, we engaged in conversation with some local people who happened in while we were there.
Back in Glendive, about 1:30 in the afternoon, Ruth joined several other ladies for a weekly prayer time to pray for people with various kinds of needs. Because the weather was unseasonably mild I went for a ride on my motorcycle. At 3:30 Ruth and I met in my basement office to read emails that had just arrived. While we were doing this Ruth complained of a severe headache suddenly making itself known. (Headaches were not a common occurrence for her.) I suggested she go upstairs and take something for it. She delayed and a few minutes later said she was becoming queasy, so she went to our bedroom on the main floor to lie down.
I went up and asked her if she needed anything. She said she was cool, so I got a small blanket--her favorite, one she had made--and put it over her. She apologized for not being able to join me to make supper together as we had planned. We were going to make my old favorite, cheese pockets, like my mother used to make. She told me there was corn chowder in the refrigerator that I could warm up.
I put the the corn chowder on the stove and turned the burner on low. I decided to watch the evening news while the chowder heated.
I heard Ruth get up and go to the bathroom. A bit later I heard a noise like something had struck the plastic waste basket beside the toilet. I walked toward the bathroom, called her name, and heard no answer. I entered and found her crumpled on the floor between the toilet and the tub. When she fell, her legs had folded underneath her. So I straightened her out on her back. There was no life in her eyes. She was breathing erratically and noisily.
Two thoughts immediately made themselves known: our only hope is in God, and I must call 911.
Our life changed in an instant. We were unplugged from life as we knew it. And so began the strangest period of our life.
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About the Book
A ruptured brain aneurysm plunged this couple into the strangest period of their lives. Arlie Rauch, husband of the patient and pastor at Community Bible Church in Glendive, Montana, tells the true story of their excruciating experience. This drama is a tribute to the inexhaustible love and goodness of God, poured out upon two people from sparsely populated eastern Montana.
About the Author
The author has writing experience including Sunday school lesson plans for a publishing company, articles for newspapers and magazines, travelogues, and papers on spiritual and moral issues. He has also preached to audiences for almost forty years. But his most important qualification for this book is that he was a major participant in the story—he observed it all.
He lives in Glendive, Montana. His family includes his wife, four married children, and eight grandchildren, living in three different states and one foreign country. He has served as pastor of four churches, the present one since 1990. As an avocation, he has been actively tuning, repairing, and rebuilding pianos since 1977. Other interests include motorcycling, gardening, chess, and travel.
For twenty years, he was involved with turbocharged motorcycles and even served for a number of years as the membership director for the Turbo Motorcycle International Owners Association.
His bachelor of sacred music is from Grace University in Omaha, Nebraska. He also earned a master of music degree from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, and studied two years at Grace Theological Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana.