<TITLE>32. Par 125-129</TITLE>L-125 You know what I think? I think God let her break into paradise just as she was going over. And she said, "You know, Bill, that religion that we been talking about since we received the Holy Ghost?"
And I said, "Yes."
She said, "Don't never cease to preach that." She said, "Stay with that." She said, "That's the thing.
And I said, "Honey, if I would've probably listened..."
She said, "Yes, Bill." She said, "Now look, honey," she said, "I'm going fast." She said, "But remember, that wonderful Holy Spirit that we've received," she said, "It's taking me through." She said, "Promise me this, honey, that you'll never never cease, you'll never let up, you'll always stand true to that." She said, "It's wonderful in death."
And I said, "I--I will."
She said, "I got a few things for me to promise."
I said, "What is it, honey?"

L-126 She said, "You remember that time when we was in Louisville and you was going on that hunting trip, and you wanted to buy that little .22 rifle."
I said, "Yes."
And said, "You didn't have enough, three dollars, to make the down payment?"
I said, "Yes." I'm very fond of rifles and things; it's just a sport to me and a recreation, I should say. And I--I said, "I remember that."

L-127 She said, "Honey, I've tried my best to save our nickels and things to get it for you." She said, "After I'm gone, you go home, and right on top of that old folding bed where Brother Ryan slept," she said, "right up on top of there, under the newspaper, you'll find the money that I saved." She said, "I've cut that out of allowance for my clothes and things that you let me have," she said, "to save it so I could get enough for a down payment to get you that rifle."
You'll never know how I felt when I looked in there and seen two dollars and seventy cents in nickels and dimes, to buy the rifle.

L-128 She said, "There's another thing." She told me about some stockings that I'd bought her one time that... I didn't know how to buy stockings, and I called it socks, and I got the wrong kind. And she told me that it--it was the wrong kind, and she'd give them to my mother because it wasn't the kind that--that she wore.
So she said, "Another thing, I want you to promise me."
Said, "What's that?"
She said, "That you won't live single."
And I said, "Oh, Hope, don't, please. Please don't ask me, honey."
She said, "Look, Bill," she said, "in heaven there'll be no marriage or given in marriage." She said, "And I got two little babies here I'm leaving you with." And she said, "I don't mind going, but I hate to leave you." Said, "I hate to leave Billy Paul and Sharon." She said, "But Billy, if--if they're raised up, and you in the ministry, and they be pulled about from pillar to post," she said, "find some good girl, some good girl that's got the Holy Ghost," said, "let her be in my place as a mother."

L-129 I thought of a twenty-two year old woman, going like that. I couldn't promise her. I said, "Honey, I--I--I just can't promise that. I--I--I can't do it."
She said, "You wouldn't let me go unhappy?"
I said, "No." I said, "I will just do the best I can."
She said, "Bill, I... They're coming back." Said, "Don't think I'm beside myself; I'm not," she said, "but I feel Them coming near. They're coming after me."
I stepped back, looked at her; I said, "Sweetheart, if you are going, all right. I'll take your body out here on Walnut Ridge graveyard, and I'll make a mound, and I'll put you in there." And I said, "Then if Jesus comes before I go, I'll be somewhere on the battlefield preaching the Holy Ghost Gospel." And I said, "If I sleep, I'll be by your side." And I said, "Look, honey, for my last date with you, my sweetheart," I said, "when the great pearly white city comes rolling down from God out of heaven, and the moon and sun stand there together, black, dripping with blood..."


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