A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE IN IRAQ

A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE IN IRAQ

By: Mary Rhudy
22 November 2007

         Now, you may or may not believe what I'm about to tell you, but it happened just this way just the same. First, though, I have to give you a little background so you'll understand the story. Joe and Mary had known each other their whole lives. Joe had grown up in Wartrace, and Mary had grown up in Bell Buckle. Joe and Mary's brother had played baseball for Bedford County High School, and Mary had been in the flag corps in the marching band. They had never even considered dating anyone other than each other. Somehow, even when they were very young, they had had a sort of bond that let one know when the other was upset or happy or whatever. And when they graduated high school, they just knew that they would get married.
         Joe's daddy had been in the Marines just like his daddy and his daddy before him. Joe didn't want to get married, right away, though, before he signed up. He wanted to make sure that when he got married, he would have a good income for his wife so that she wouldn't have to worry. Also, the country was at war, and he knew there was a good chance of going over. But before he went to boot camp, they went out for an evening picnic kind of as a goodbye, and, well, you know how things are. One thing led to another.          
         Anyway, Joe went off to boot camp and Mary went with his folks to see him graduate. My, he was a sight in his full dress uniform and everything. Mary said that he looked so handsome she almost burst out with pride, but when they sang the Marine Corps song, she broke down and cried. They went to the post exchange after the ceremony, and he bought her a ring and proposed on one knee in his uniform. Even his daddy got teary-eyed when he saw it.  They agreed that when he came home on his break after his school, they would get married at the Episcopal Church in Tullahoma.
         They wrote to each other sometimes two and three times a week. Usually it was about the weather or the crops or whatever. But one day Joe got a letter from Mary that made him burst out with pride and sat him down with worry at the same time. Mary had written to tell him that she was pregnant and that she reckoned that her baby would be born in late December. Joe got out his calendar. December was 5 months away. He finished his school in two more months. He would be getting two weeks at home, but then he would be going overseas to Iraq. Joe was going to be a father. His baby girl or boy would be born in December. He needed to make sure that whatever happened to him, his beloved Mary and his baby would be well-looked after.
         So when he got home on his leave, he went straight to Mary's home and spoke to her father. Joe had always been sort of old-fashioned like that. They called up the church in Tullahoma and spoke to the priest. They explained the whole situation. He said that if they could come over that afternoon, he would give them some premarital counseling and then he would perform the ceremony the following week. You should have seen Mary. You've never seen such a pretty bride in your whole life. They only had one night for the honeymoon, and then he had to go to the airport the next day to fly back to his base. And then he would not be able to communicate with her or anyone else until he got to his jumping off point in Kuwait.
         Joe and Mary had never been more than four miles apart from each other in their whole lives, so being half a world apart was like ripping each one's insides out. Every night Mary would close her eyes and try to pray herself into his arms, and every night Joe would try to pray himself to be with Mary. Mary would write to Joe every day. Joe would write to her as often as he could, but he couldn't tell her much because of the need for tight security. Joe didn't tell her about the sleeping in a hole in the ground in his uniform and the fact that the helmet rubbed his scalp raw. He was always telling her only the good things like about how his buddies were great guys and how the chaplain was from Murfreesboro.
         But you know women. Mary knew. She had heard from other wives and had seen the news and she knew. Joe was miserable. There probably wasn't a horse withing 200 miles for him to ride and she figured there weren't going to be too many chances to pay baseball in the winter in a war zone. But she kept up a brave front. She wrote only about the happy things. She wrote of the little house that their parents had chipped in a rented for them for when he got home. Mary had learned to sew and she was making curtains and other things when she wasn't at work
         But she didn't write about the fact that she hurt all the time and that the working was hard on her. She didn't write that the doctor was worried about her and had told her she would have to quit her job and stay home and rest. But like I said about these two - they just sort of always knew what was going on with each other. Mary always knew how scared and homesick Joe was, and Joe sort of knew that Mary was not doing as well as she wrote.
         Most folks think that since Iraq is a desert country that it stays hot all the time. Buddy, you couldn't be more wrong. I remember Iraq from when I was over there, and come winter time, it gets mighty derned cold and stays that way. It'll get down around zero and stay that way for days. The wind kicks up and no matter how much uniform you have on, you can't get warm enough. Mary had knitted Joe a wool helmet liner and sent it to him with the rest of his Christmas present. Most of it got to him okay, but the cookies and the jar of fig jam she had made didn't survive the trip. But the helmet liner got there, okay, and he put it on and could feel all the love she had put into making it for him.
         As the week before Christmas came around, Joe got to worrying. He couldn't put a finger on it, but somehow he knew that something was going wrong with Mary. Somehow, he knew that she was having trouble and that she and the baby were in danger. Here he was in a hole in a ground in the desert when his bride needed him, and he couldn't do anything to help her. As the days wore on, he got more and more depressed and started keeping to himself as much as he could so his buddies couldn't see him when he would cry for missing her so much.
         He stood his watch on Christmas Eve night and was relieved just before midnight. He went back to his hole in the ground and tried to get as far from his buddies as he could. Pulling the helmet liner so it covered his eyes, he curled up in a ball and wept. His baby was being born that night. He could feel it. His first born baby was going to be born that night, and his wife was there without him by her side. Sure, she had her mother and his, but she needed him, and he needed to see his baby be brought into the world.
         A warm breeze swept over him, and a calm silence came over the area. He looked up and saw a little boy walking towards him. His training made him jump up and grab his gun, just in case. But the boy just took Joe's hand and told him not to be afraid. Joe fell silent. He wasn't sure what to make of this. Here he was in the middle of the desert in Iraq, and here is this boy who speaks perfect English telling him not to be afraid. Joe sat back down and watched as the little boy sat down beside him. He said, "Don't worry, Joe. She's okay." And with that the little boy curled up beside Joe. Joe felt his whole body get warm, and then he felt himself drifting off. He tried to fight it, but he fell asleep, anyway.
         The next thing he knew, he was standing in a labor room in a hospital. As he looked up, he saw some people wheeling a bed into the room. It was Mary. They were bringing her in to have her baby. But there were tubes in her arms and an oxygen mask on her face and she looked so small and so pale and so delicate. He walked over to her and touched her face and her hand. She opened her eyes. He thought he had imagined it, but then he was sure. She was squeezing his hand. But how did she know he was there? Could she see him?
         He could see by her movements that she was having some serious contractions. He could see the way her muscles were squeezing and pushing, and he could see her begin to try to work with the muscles to try to deliver her baby. He held onto her hand and spoke to her. "Come on, girl. Come on, Mary. We can do this. Push, baby. I'm right here with you." All the while, he could see her getting stronger and could feel her squeezing his hand.
         And then, as he watched, the head came peeking out. A head full of red-gold hair like Mary's. And then he was all the way out. The soft, squirming mass of pinkish-red baby came out with a whail. Lord, he was big. No  wonder Mary had had some trouble having him. As Joe watched, the nurse took him and weighed him and made some notes on a chart. " Mrs. Wheeler, you did a fine job. You have a fine, healthy baby boy. And a whopper, too! 9 pounds and 12 ounces."
         The nurse dried him off with a soft towel and handed him to Mary. Joe longed to hold his son in his arms. His heart ached to see him so close and to know he was so far away. He touched the boy's head and his hands. Joe began to cry. And with his right hand, he took some of the tears and used them to put a cross on his son's head and made him a promise. "Come hell or high water, Joe, Jr., I am coming home to you. I don't know what shape I'll be in when I get there, but I am coming home to you, and I am going to try to be the best daddy any boy ever had."
         Joe felt himself being pulled away from the scene in the room, but before he was gone, he heard Mary tell the nurse that her husband had been there by her side the whole time. "I felt his hand and I felt his tears fall on my face. I know it. God granted my prayer. Joe was with me." When Joe awoke, it was bitter cold. He looked down. The boy was gone. But in his hand, Joe found a small golden Christmas ornament in the shape of a cross. It was engraved. "Joseph Allen Wheeler, Jr. Born 25 December 2007."