Page 45 - eBook Living Water 2

13 Fred’s Illness

It was 1989 and I had a lot on my plate. I was juggling a
difficult marriage, raising and eventually home schooling our son and
counseling with Pat while having her living with us in our home.

In 1992 Fred, at aged 50, had a heart attack. As a result, we
became interested in the vegetarian “Hallelujah Diet” started by Rev.
George Malkmus. I began selling Barleygreen, a green juice powder
made by a multi-level health company, and also started sharing with
others about the diet. Fred never had another heart attack. As a
matter of fact, his doctors were so impressed that they took him off all
his heart and cholesterol lowering medications. We all became
slimmer and healthier for a while.

Seven years later in 1999 Fred was diagnosed with throat
cancer. Even though he had given up his heavy smoking when we
were married twenty six years earlier, we were told that the
devastating effects could still show up years later. He didn’t want to
go the route suggested by the doctors, which was to remove his voice
box and undergo chemotherapy. Even with all of that, the prognosis
was not good. We spent the next year exploring alternative solutions
which led us to Mexico on three different occasions. When that
didn’t bring any lasting results, he went for pinpoint radiation at the
Staten Island University Hospital in New York. This did put the
cancer into remission.

After returning from his last trip to Mexico, Fred was shocked
to find out that the truss company he had been working at for the past
nine years had fired him. However, tragedy turned to victory when
several months later another truss company was willing to hire him.
Since they were a large corporation, they offered more salary and
much better benefits than his previous employment. At the time that
he was hired, they even had an open enrollment offering life
insurance, regardless of any previous existing conditions. So, we took