 Letters In My Casket - World War I and II By Mary Cox Bilz Dear Reader, Today, we are called to combat. Enemy? The common people. "Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them. Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you...." Jeremiah 1:17-19. God means business! Gut-wrenching! Son of Hilkiah is ridiculed, captured, and beaten. The cost of compliance. Meet Salena Brown, an African-American soldier in World War II. Salena is a fictional character, placed in real-life circumstances. Her father was a World War I veteran. Both parents are deceased. Some times God calls us to BE and DO beyond ourselves. Salena and Jeremiah share the battle. So do you and I. CHAPTER ONEGood morning, Mother! I discovered your box of letters in the back room. The stack you began to write when I was a baby. They were bound by years with rubber bands. Your desire for me to find them, after the death of you and daddy, was fulfilled. Memories simmered in my mind. Mother, how many times did you watch me, as a little kid, march through the house? You never spoiled my fun by telling me that black women were banned from the ranks. Instead, you and Daddy drilled in me greatness. Complaining was unwelcome. I will always remember the time Daddy got mad at me and gave me a lecture on black is not a handicap. You got so upset when he tied my two wrists together with an old shoestring and made me sit in the corner through supper. He wanted me to experience a real handicap. Every day I recall the first time this woman of color put on an Army uniform and walked into the barrack showing her minority status. Did you know that my name, Salena, means salt? I bet you did. You and Daddy never made a decision without thinking it through. "Stand up straight, Salena! Think positive and do not be arrogant or God will knock you down a peg!" These were your words. This is the truth, Mother. Though my desires often conflict, God does not permit temper tantrums. Therefore, I bite the bullet and wait for the harsh wind to blow out to sea. Mother and Daddy, thank you is not enough. You brought me into this world to make a difference. It is not my home. Your present Home is the place I hang my hat. I am merely here, as you were, to grow up in Christ. Then leave. When this earthly temple dies, your letters will be wrapped in royal blue cloth and placed in the casket beside my pillow. Thank you, Lieutenant Salena Brown "But the Lord said to me, 'Do not say, I am only a child'...." Jeremiah 1:7 Author and mouth artist Mary Cox-Bilz had always wanted to write, but spent most of her younger life doing the things other women did. She went to college, managed her own business and did evaluation and counseling in the Maryland Rehabilitation Center to help other physically challenged people learn to manage their disabilities. The daughter of a Maryland State Police Officer and a State Administrator, Mary was born with Arthrogryposis (ARTH-row-grip-O-sis), a birth defect that left her a quadriplegic with only 3% use of her left arm and 7% use of her right. Though, Mary is confined to a motorized wheelchair, she teaches four writing classes a week for a local college, travels to speaking engagements, gives telephone and television interviews, and attends writer's conferences sponsored by the International Women's Writing Guild. Mary uses a mouth stick to type manuscripts on her computer, or surf the Internet, and does pen and ink drawings, holding the pen in her mouth. About six months after her husband's death, Mary gave up her 56 hour a week telemarketing business, started her first book, and returned to the Eastern Shore of Maryland to follow her dream of becoming a writer. Since November of 1998, she has written three books, published by White Oaks Creations, of Cartersville, VA, and is hard at work on the fourth. A lifelong Christian, Mary is a member of a local United Methodist Church, but stresses that her writings, while firmly based in Christian faith, are inter-denominational and suitable reading for any audience. More recently, Mary has begun to create a line of special greeting cards, featuring her own drawings and verses, and to market reproductions of her art works and poetry broadsides through local bookstores and on her Internet website at www.angelfire.com/mb2/marycoxbilz |