PROMISES
In this Checkpoints, Betty shares memories about Papa, that he kept his promises.
“Papa, before you bring in the children so I can see them one last time, promise me…”
Mama, Lucille Peters (my mother), told me that in 1915, “Grandma Bessie” Warren (my grandmother), died from tuberculosis (TB) at the age of thirty-four. “Mama,” had just turned two-years-old. Back in the old days, Will Warren, my grandfather, “Papa,” as we called him, worked as a sharecropper for 50 cents a day. Like most sharecroppers, he moved frequently. Mama, born in 1927, was the youngest of Papa's six children. Lennie C., the oldest girl, was only eleven. Lawrence was the oldest boy, followed by Lillie Mae, Lonia B. Luther and Lucille.
On her deathbed in 1930, when Granda Bessie told Papa, “You bring in the children so I can see them one last time and tell them Good-bye," Grandma told Papa right before she died that summer. Gently, with his calloused, sun-kissed hands, Papa raised Grandma's head up from her feather pillow. As she touched each of her children's face, she whispered weakly, “I love you... You be good for Papa.” After their children left the room, Grandma wiped her eyes and whispered to Papa, "Will, I've made everything right with my Lord. I know you and the Lord will take good care of our children..."
Papa bit his bottom lip and tenderly placed Grandma's head back on her tearstained pillow. Grandma forced a smile and lightly squeezed Papa's hand. Papa did not even try to blink back his tears as Grandma closed her eyes and breathed her last breath. He held Grandma and wept bitterly.
Even though Papa’s heart broke when Grandma left him and went to Heaven, he knew he knew that the six small children God had given him and Grandma depended on him. Along with making sure they had clothes and shoes to wear, he would make sure they had food to eat. He had promised Grandma he would raise their children the way they had agreed… to follow God's way. He would take them to church regularly and teach them right from wrong He also reassured Grandma that he would read the Bible to their children each night by the light of the coal oil lantern.
During the time Papa raised all six children by himself, he made a long, wooden pine table, and seven straight-back chairs for the family's “kitchen” in their two-room house. The living room and bedroom combined had two double beds and a rocking chair for Papa. After the family finished their supper, the children would bring their straight-back chairs into the living room, where Papa read the Bible to them.
At night, Papa, Uncle Lawrence and Uncle Luther would sleep in one bed. The four girls slept in the other. Two girls slept at the head and two at the foot of the bed. When one of the Warren girls turned over during the night, they all had to turn.
Papa kept the promises he made to Grandma before she went to heaven. He kept the family together and made sure they had foot to eat and clothes to wear. He taught them God’s way to live. After the evening meal, Papa would sit in his wooden rocking chair and read the Bible from the light of their black, coal oil lantern, their only source of light. Mama would sometimes comb Papa's hair while he read the Bible, and the rest of the children would gather around them. Then they would all sing a song. Mama said that her brothers and sisters told her that one of the songs was "I'll fly away."
Papa taught Mama, her brothers and sisters never to never waste anything. If one of the children put too such food on their plate and did not eat all of it, he or she had to eat their leftover food for their next meal. Mama said that along with being taught that Papa meant what he said, and not to waste anything, Mama, her brothers and sisters also learned to say “Please,” and “Thank You”. Mama said, "I'm thankful for the way Papa raised me, my brothers and sisters; that he taught us to be respectful,” Mama said.
From the memories the Warren children shared during my times with them and with our Papa, I grew to love each one of them. Pictures confirm that even when 57-years-old, with soft brown eyes that smiled, and slightly graying hair, Papa was still a handsome man. When later in life, he no longer farmed, Papa sold Watkins salve and liniment door-to-door.
After Mama and her siblings married and left home, Papa met Pearle Maude Johnson. Shortly after they met, Papa and Pearle married. He then built a little grocery store in Santa Fe, Tennessee. I remember that when I was young, Papa would give me, and my cousins candy each time we visited him and Pearle.
Mama told me that Papa was born in 1892. I remember when he died in 1976 at the age of 84. I cried.
Like Grandma Bessie, Papa now lives in Heaven. I'm convinced that if Papa and Grandma Bessie could look down from Heaven and see how each one of their six children turned out, they would smile.
By God’s grace, Papa kept his promises. He kept the promises he made to Grandma Bessie.
shELAH’s Note:
“I promise…”
“I pinky promise…”
“I remember making promises and even making a pinky promise when a child.
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a promise depicts “a declaration that one will do or refrain from doing something specified; or a
legally binding declaration that gives the person to whom it is made a right to expect or to claim the performance or forbearance of a specified act.”
W. Herbert asserts that the pinky promise evolved from yubitsume or enkozume, the Japanese practice of chopping off of a part of a person’s finger as a gesture of apology and commitment.
The cutting off of a fingertip (usually beginning with the little finger of the left hand) is a gesture with an enormous power of persuasion:
it cannot be refused and tempers justice with mercy. It serves as an apology or reparation for bungled actions. It was also often demanded when someone wanted to leave the yakuza organization. Nowadays, though, it is said that fines (millions of Yen) will also do. Where the custom comes from is not quite clear. In red-light districts in Edo times, prostitutes presented fingernails or locks of hair as tokens of their devotion to preferred customers or lovers. The utmost sign of (mental) faithfulness was a severed fingertip. The first historical record of a finger amputation by a kyōkaku dates to the year 1834.
Bible2School reports that the Bible contains 8,810 promises, approximately 85%: 7,487 from God to humans. Other promises include:
290 by humans to God
28 from angels, and
2 from God the Father to God the Son.
John 14:1-3 records one of Jesus’ promises; that he will come again to receive people into himself: Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also, Because of Jesus, as we look forward to His return, we have hope. Despite death, we not only have eternal life, but those also who trust in Jesus have more and more and more promises we can read in that Bible.
1 Herbert, W. (2021). From Brawler to Boss: Old School Yakuza Careers and Modern Times. The Yakuza in Popular Media: Honorable Criminals or Violent Gangsters?, 21.