Wading High Water

                Alice Vertle Rainey was born on February 14, 1902, so when Mother shared this memory snippet from her time with her dearly loved aunt, today seemed a perfect time to share it. 

Alice Vertle Rainey as a teen

                Mother’s earliest memories were made with her parents on the Oliver Morton place* here in the Bend. When she turned six years old, she visited Belford Grade School, but her parents felt over three miles were too great a distance for her to walk by herself.

                Her parents relocated so their bright, little daughter could attend school daily. My grandparents and Mother moved from the Morton place to the Betts place. Instead of being over three miles away, they were less than a half mile from Belford Grade School.

                My mother, Bernyce Smith Gates, thrilled at the thought of living so close to her beloved maternal grandma, Rosa Jarrell Rainey, and her treasured aunt, Alice Vertle Rainey. Their home could be reached with a hike of well under a half mile for my mother.

                Alice suffered with visual impairment due to complications from a case of Rubeola measles as a young child. For this reason, my mother questioned the sanity of anyone rejecting immunization for a child from this awful disease. She confided to me how she ensured Angie get the inoculation as soon as could. Mother indicated how she agonized watching me suffer from my case of the “red” measles as a preschooler prior to the vaccine’s release in 1963. Now the second and final dose of MMR vaccinations protecting against measles (Rubeola), mumps, and Rubella (three-day measles) are administered to children before entrance into school.

                Even though Mother’s beloved Aunt Alice suffered from visual impairment, she and Mother cooked, cleaned, and even hiked back and forth between their homes. Mother rewrote Alice’s favorite recipes in large print. Alice prided herself on keeping a clean house, being especially fastidious about the kitchen, where she baked delicious desserts.

                Recently, Mother recounted a memory I had never heard. She began speaking about the flooding of the creek south of their home when they lived on the Betts place, now owned by the descendants of Lora Kirk Betts. She recalled the width of the little creek being only about eight feet. Most of the time, its flow just trickled, but rain transformed the little stream into a rapid flowing menace. When flooding, it rose quickly but went down just as rapidly.**

                As a kid, Mother exhibited gutsy behavior based on stories told about her. She and her dear Aunt Alice always walked to and from her home and the Rainey home. Their preferred and closest route was less than half a mile northwest of the twin bridges directly south of the house. Mother chuckled a bit as she recalled a time when she was around ten years old. She and Alice embarked on their trek from Mother’s home to the home Alice shared with Mother’s grandma. Mother said, “That day the creek water was up to our waists and flowing swiftly, but we made it across.” It seemed unnecessary to mention it was not cold weather since they arrived soaked from their waists down at her grandma’s house after wading high water! 

                As I reflect on the life of Alice Rainey, much of her life found her “in high water” beginning with the disease that debilitated her vision. In those days, her impaired vision took away her opportunity for further education like my grandma, Gladys Rainey Smith, who attended the summer session at Oklahoma A and M to receive certification as a schoolteacher. Neither did Alice have the chance to train in the field of business like her youngest sister, Emma Rainey Buckley, who went on to a multi-decade career in Washington, D.C. Even though her nieces and nephews told of how loving she was to them as children, Alice never married and had children as her oldest sister, Daisy Dean Rainey Rice, did.

                Yet especially after her spiritual conversion in the fall of 1931, she found the strength and desire to live a life of purpose and giving to others, especially her own mother. The words from the very mouth of God that Isaiah dictated in the book bearing his name in chapter 43, verse 2 came to mind. Here are the powerful words that grounded Alice and all who have received Jesus as Savior. Having been transformed from death into life, they can attest to His tried-and-true promises as they walk with Him as Lord, the “boss” of their daily existence, 

When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.

When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.

When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.(The Living Translation)

*To see a photograph of Mother’s first home at the Oliver Morton place, go to: https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2014/07/miracles-at-little-house.html

**To read a blog posting about the prevalent flooding of this creek and its impact on Mamie Irene Tripp Gates, my paternal grandma, click on: https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2015/07/she-wouldnt-turn-around-or-wait.html