<TITLE>22. Par 206-218</TITLE>L-206 Well, find myself marooned out on a little island, set there three days. I had plenty of time to think about whether That was trash or not. Just beating, "Where's my wife?"

L-207   Finally when I found her, in a few days after I got out and got across, she was way up to Columbus, Indiana, in the Baptist Auditorium where they had made a--a hospital like, sickrooms on little government cots. And I ran to her as hard as I could, trying to find where she was, screaming, "Hope! Hope! Hope!" And I looked, and there she was laying on a cot, and TB had set in.
She raised her little boney hand, and she said, "Billy."
And I run to her, and I said, "Hope, honey."
She said, "I look awful, don't I?"
I said, "No, honey, you look all right."

L-208   For about six months we worked with everything that was in us, to try to get to save her life, but she kept getting lower and lower.

L-209 One day I was on patrol and I had my radio turned on, and I thought I heard them say, make a call on the radio, said, "For William Branham, wanted at the hospital at once, wife dying." I rushed back to the hospital as quick as I could, turned on the red light and the siren, and took off. And then I--I got up at the hospital and I stopped, run in. Coming down through the--the hospital, I seen a little buddy of mine that we fished together, we run together as boys, Sam Adair.

L-210 Doctor Sam Adair, he's the one that was the vision come not long ago and told him about the clinic. And he said, if anybody doubted the vision, just call him collect, you want to know about whether it was right or not.

L-211   And so then here he come out like that, and he had his hat in his hand. He looked at me and he just started crying. And I run up to him, throwed my arms around him. He put his arms around me, said, "Billy, she's going." He said, "I'm sorry. I've done all I could do, I've had specialists and everything."
I said, "Sam, surely she's not going!"
Said, "Yeah, she's going."
And he said, "Don't go in there, Bill."
And I said, "I got to go in, Sam."
And he said, "Don't do it. Don't, please don't."
I said, "Let me go in."
Said, "I'll go with you."

L-212 I said, "No, you stay out here. I want to stay with her in her last minutes."
Said, "She's unconscious."

L-213   I walked in the room. And the nurse was sitting there, and she was crying 'cause she and Hope was schoolmates together. And so I looked over, and she started crying, put her hand up. And started walking over.

L-214 And I looked over, and shook her. There she was, she had went down from about a hundred and twenty pounds, to about sixty. And I--I shook her. And if I live to be a hundred years old, I'll never forget what happened. She turned over, and those great big pretty eyes looked up at me. She smiled. She said, "Why did you call me back, Billy?"
I said, "Honey, I just got the cash..."

L-215   I had to work. We was way in debt and hundreds of dollars of doctor bill, and nothing to pay it with. And I just had to work. And I seen her two or three times a day, and every night, and then when she was in that condition.
I said, "What do you mean, 'Call' you 'back'?"

L-216 She said, "Bill, you've preached about It, you've talked about It, but you don't have no idea what It is."
I said, "What are you talking about?"

L-217 She said, "Heaven." She said, "Look," she said, "I was being escorted Home by some peoples, men or women or something. They was dressed in white." And she said, "I was at ease and peace." Said, "Big pretty birds flying from tree to tree." She said, "Don't think I'm beside myself." She said, "Billy, I'm going to tell you our mistake." She said, "Sit down." I didn't; I knelt down, took her hand. She said, "You know where our mistake is?"
And I said, "Yes, sweetheart, I do."

L-218 She said, "We should have never listened to Mama. Them people were right."
And I said, "I know it."


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