The Baby Sitter
Rose and Mark are going to take a cruise ship tour to the Bahamas
Islands. The cruise is for eight days and seven nights, from
February 12th - 20th 2000. It’s a Valentines cruise, but for Rose
and Mark it is also a twentieth anniversary cruise. They were
married on February the 19th 1980. They have a daughter named
Kelly, she is 16 years old and is going to stay with her
grandmother. The cruise is a romantic get away (from Kelly).
Kelly is a little spoiled, and very unhappy that she has to spend
over a week at grandmothers house.
Kelly told her parents - You two worked so long and so hard to get
out of that poor neighborhood where grandma lives, Now your
sending me there to stay for over a week. I don’t even like going
there on holidays for just a few hours. There is nobody but old
people living in that neighborhood. Besides I have to listen to
grandma’s stories. Every year for Thanksgiving she tells us how
they were so poor in the 30’s, that one year all they had for
Thanksgiving dinner was an old opossum, so they roasted it to eat
for the Thanksgiving meal. Then I have to hear about how she use
to walk nine miles to get to school, in the snow, without shoes, up
hill both ways. Thats all old people have to do, is think up wild
stories, none of them are true.
Rose and Mark dropped Kelly off at grandma’s house, then they
went on to start their romantic cruise. Kelly’s first words to
grandma were - Is your cable working, I want to watch Titanic
tonight, it’s my favorite movie, I never miss it when its on. Kelly
turned on the TV set, it’s an old black and white TV. Kelly said,
Grandma, when are you going to get a color T.V.? Grandma said,
One of these days dear, when I can afford it.
Grandma called all of her neighbors to let them know her
grand-daughter would be staying a few days with her. Later
JoAnn from across the street came over to ask if Kelly would
baby-sit for her tonight. JoAnn is taking night classes twice a
week, Kelly said, No thanks, Titanic is on tonight and I’m going to
watch it, I’m not baby sitting your grand children for you. JoAnn
said, Oh it’s not my grand children I want you to baby-sit, It’s my
mother. Kelly looked at the old lady and said, Your mother is still
alive? JoAnn said, Yes she is going to be 104 in July if she lives
that long.
Kelly said, No, I don’t thinks so, thanks anyway. JoAnn gave it
one last try, she said, I’ll pay you $10 to stay with her for two
hours, you don’t have to do anything except watch T.V. and be
there with her. Kelly said, I don’t know. JoAnn looked at the
black and white TV set and said, I have color. Kelly said, What
time do you want me to come over? JoAnn said, About 6:45 and
I’ll be back by 9PM.
Kelly showed up to JoAnn’s house on time, JoAnn showed her
into the living room where the color TV set was. JoAnn’s mother
was in the living room also, sitting in a recliner asleep.
Kelly said, She is not going to wake up after you leave and freak
out on me or something is she? JoAnn said No, she just sits there,
she hardly ever says a word. She just stares at the wall most of the
time. Kelly said, OK, I can deal with that. JoAnn left to go to her
class, and Kelly turned on the TV and tuned it to the channel that
the Titanic movie was going to be on.
Just before the Titanic came on, JoAnn’s mother opened up her
eyes and seen Kelly sitting on the couch. Kelly said, Hi. The
woman did not say a word. Kelly said, OK at least you won’t be
talking while I’m trying to watch my show. When the show
started the woman said, "I’ve lived for three centuries." Kelly said
Your old, but your not 300 years old yet. About a half hour later
the woman said, "I watched the Titanic sink to the bottom." Kelly
said, Shush, it hasn’t got to that part yet. When the show got to
the part where the couple were dancing on the Titanic, The woman
said,"I danced with President Kennedy". Kelly said President
Kennedy wasn’t the President back then, you old people are
always trying to make up stories to tell. Just before JoAnn came
back, the woman said, "He told me to tell you that he loves you
Kelly." Kelly said, Who are you talking about, I don’t want
anyone you know, to LOVE ME! Who told you my name was
Kelly anyway?
The woman said, "Jesus".
Kelly said, The next time you see Jesus, you two talk about
someone else. The woman said, "I see him now, he is here in the
room." Then she closed her eyes and stopped breathing.
Kelly got up and shook the woman, the woman was gone. Kelly
started to run out the front door, but JoAnn came in. Kelly said, I
think your mom just died on me. JoAnne said, Call 911, and she
checked her mother. Kelly said, I’ll call from Grandma’s house,
I’m out of here! Kelly ran back across the street to her grandma’s
house, she called 911. Then she told her grandmother what had
happened.
Kelly watched from the window, as the paramedic’s loaded the
woman’s body into the back of the Ambulance. JoAnn came by
later to pay Kelly the $10 as she had promised to pay. Kelly had
no problem with accepting the money and she actually thought she
should be paid more, for having been scarred so bad. Kelly didn’t
say it, but you could see it by the look on her face.
After JoAnn left, Kelly’s grandma said I’m ashamed of you for
taking that money, turning it down would have been the Christian
thing to do, Kelly said, That’s why I’m not ever going to become a
Christian and that is why your stuck in this neighborhood. Then
Kelly remembered that she had missed the rest of her show, that
upset her more than the woman’s death had. That night Kelly
slept like a baby.
The next day JoAnn came over to let them know when and where
the funeral for her mother would be held. Grandma said, We will
be there. When Grandma told Kelly, she said, Grandma I’m not
going, she was old as dirt, now they are going to put her in the dirt,
they don’t need me there for that. Grandma said, You will go, or
you will not watch TV in this house, the rest of the time you are
here. Kelly knew that her grandma meant what she had said, so
she agreed to go to the woman’s funeral.
On the day of the woman’s funeral, they gathered around the grave
site to lay the woman’s body to rest. Kelly was there standing
beside of her grandma at the grave side service. The preacher
conducting the funeral was a young man. The young preacher
started giving the eulogy. He said, Mrs. Lewis was born July 5th
in 1896 in Great Britain. She died February the 14th 2000, her life
covers three centuries, few live to see hundred and even fewer to
live in three different centuries.
Kelly started to listen real close, the woman was telling the truth,
she wasn’t trying to say she was 300 years old. The young
preacher went on to say - Mrs. Lewis wanted to come to America,
so when she was 16 years old she took a job as a cabin maid on a
ship going to New York. It was her chance to get to America. The
name of the ship was the Titanic . Kelly said to herself - WOW
she was on the Titanic, then she did see it sink, she was the same
age then as I am now.
The young preacher said - When she was picked up from the life
boat by the crew of the Carpathia, two hours after the Titanic had
sunk, Mrs. Lewis gave her life to Christ to do his work, Her
husband Mr. Lewis, went down with the Titanic, when it sank to
the bottom. He wrote her a love letter while he was still on the
deck of the sinking ship. He must have still been writing when the
ship sank, because the last word wasn’t finished. Then as he was
in the icy waters he must have placed it into a bottle. God carried
the note in the bottle to the life boat that Mrs. Lewis was in, and
she found it floating in the Sea, the note was addressed to her,
from her husband.
Mrs. Lewis thought of him each day and never loved another. The
night before the ship sank, he gave her a child. Mrs. Lewis didn’t
know she was with child, until after she had reached America.
When the child was born she name her JoAnn and she is standing
her today mourning the loss of her Dear Mother.
Mrs. Lewis spent the rest of her life helping people to find Jesus,
she walked close to him. She was such a worker for Christ, that
she was invited to come to the White House by some of the people
she had helped to come to know Jesus, and was then on President
Kennedy’s personal staff. One of her fondest memories was when
she got to dance with the President, after they introduced her to
him at the party there.
Kelly thought - I can’t believe it, she really did do all those things.
Then it come to her about what the preacher had said - That Mrs.
Lewis walks with Jesus, and what Mrs. Lewis had said,"He told
me to tell you that he loves you." Jesus did love her, Kelly started
crying out loud, she couldn’t hold it back.
The young preacher said Mrs. Lewis helped to save many lives and
bring them to Christ before she died. Kelly dropped to her knee’s
crying, she said, Mrs. Lewis saved one more too, just now, Jesus
has come into my heart because of her. The preacher said, She
saved me and a lot of the people standing around you here today
and helped lead us to Christ. The preacher said, If Mrs. Lewis was
here right now she would say - My eulogy can wait, but that girls
soul can’t, so you stop talking about me and pray with that girl for
Jesus to forgive her sins and finish the eulogy afterwards. So thats
what the young preacher did, and every one there agreed that Mrs.
Lewis would have said it just that way.
Kelly was baptized later that week on February the 19th 2000, the
same day of her parents anniversary. When Kelly’s parents came
to grandma’s house to pick her up. Rose announced that they had
gotten married again on the cruise ship, on their anniversary, the
19th of February. Kelly said, Mom, Dad, because of a woman that
was on the Titanic, I was born again, sit down and I will tell you
all about it. Later JoAnn came over and brought the letter that her
father had wrote to her mother, for Kelly to read it. Below is a
copy of the letter.
TO MY DEAR MRS LEWIS FROM MR LEWIS
I’M WRITING THIS TO YOU TO LET YOU
KNOW MY LAST THOUGHTS WILL BE OF
YOU, MY LOVE. I DO NOT REGRET BEING
HERE SO YOU CAN BE THERE. I CHARISH
THE YEARS WE HAVE SHARED TOGETHER.
HOW QUICKLY THINGS CHANGE, IT WAS JUST
A LITTLE WHILE AGO THAT WE WERE IN
THE BIG DINNING ROOM OF THE SHIP
ENJOYING A MEAL TOGETHER . LITTLE DID
WE KNOW IT WOULD BE THE LAST ONE
THAT WE WOULD SHARE. YOU LOOKED SO
WONDERFUL IN THE DRESS YOU WAS
WEARING, I WAS SO PROUD TO BE SEEN
THERE WITH YOU. YOU EVEN MADE THE
ROSES ON THE TABLE MORE BEAUTIFUL,
BECAUSE YOU WERE NEAR THEM. THE
ROOM AND TABLE ARE UNDER WATER
NOW, NEVER AGAIN TO HAVE ONE SUCH
AS YOU TO BLESS THEM WITH YOUR
PRESENCE. AFTER THE MEAL WE TOOK A
WALK ON THE DECK, WE PASSED BY HERE
WHERE I AM SITTING NOW. I TOLD YOU
THAT IF THE WATERS WERE DRAINED OUT
FROM ALL OF THE SEA’S IN THE WORLD,
AND MY LOVE FOR YOU POURED INTO THE
EMPTINESS, MY LOVE WOULD STILL FLOOD
THE EARTH AND COVER THE HIGHEST
MOUNTAIN, AS IT DID IN THE DAYS OF
NOAH AND THE ARK. IF ONLY TIME WOULD
HAVE STOPPED AT THAT MOMENT. WE
WERE TOGETHER THEN, HOLDING HANDS
AND ENJOYING EACH OTHERS COMPANY. I
CAN STILL FEEL THE WARMTH OF YOUR
HAND IN MINE. THE LOOK IN YOUR EYES
WHEN I KISSED YOU, WITH SO MANY
AROUND. THE MEMORIES OF LAST NIGHT
WHEN WE WERE ALONE IN OUR CABIN, AS
ONE.
I HAD ALWAYS TRIED TO IMAGINE HOW
MUCH LOVE IT MUST HAVE TOOK FOR
JESUS TO GIVE UP HIS LIFE FOR US. I
THINK THAT I UNDERSTAND NOW. IN THE
MORNING WHEN YOU WATCH THE SUN
RISE, THE SEA WILL HAVE ALREADY
SEPARATED ME FROM MY BODY, BUT THE
LOVE FOR YOU I WILL CARRY WITH ME
ALWAYS. THE END IS NEAR , IT’S GOING
UNDER NOW, SO LET ME SAY AS MANY
TIMES AS I CAN, I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU
I LOVE YOU I LOv
This story was written by: Johnny lee Hall
FOR MORE INFO ON THE TITANIC
www.titanic-online.com/library/history/passlist.htm
