Is That Really You?
It seems as though almost anywhere my wife and I go, especially when we get close to town, I hear this all too familiar voice coming up to us, “Ms. Cruse, (or Ms. Rose, if they knew her before we were married) Is that you?” The sparkle in their eyes tells me they remember her fondly.
These people, who see my wife, are just so excited to see her. Then most of them say, “I can’t wait to tell so and so (you can fill in the person’s name) that I saw you.” My wife usually has to ask them who they are.
Before you get too concerned about my wife’s memory, you might need to know that she is a school teacher. She has been teaching a long time. In the time I’ve known her, she has taught second and third grades. So when an adult comes up to her and says, “Do you remember me?” their second and third grade features have changed quite a bit.
I have never seen a single person who has come up to her in one of these meetings ever walk away with anything other than total happiness on their face. Usually they walk away shaking their heads and having that “I can’t believe I saw her” face.
I don’t get nearly as many people doing that with me. Other than some kind of celebrity, I can’t think of anyone that I could walk up to and feel that way about either. Sure there are lots of old friends I haven’t seen in a while that I would love to catch up with and talk to. The church I grew up in when I was younger was very important to me. I would love to catch up with some of them sometimes, too. But to absolutely gush over, I can’t really think of anyone off the top of my head.
I was sitting at a restaurant one evening for dinner. A gentleman came over to the table my wife and I were sitting at and started talking to us. I thought it was a little strange because I didn’t have a clue who he was. I can pretty much talk to anyone so I kept going on with the conversation.
The guy went back to his table. I glanced over a couple of times hoping that I could figure out who he was. There is a lot of stuff up inside my head, but over there in the far corner, a picture came to my mind. It was covered with dust, but as I blew on it, the portrait became clear. “Tommy!” I mumbled to my wife. “What?” my wife said. “That’s Tommy who came over to our table,” I continued.
When I was in high school there was a group of four of us guys who hung out together. The county I went to high school in had a two year Vo-tech program that I attended. It was a combination of students from the three county high schools. I went to one high school, the other three guys went to our school’s rival high school.
Just about every Friday night the four of us would get together and go duckpin bowling. We bowled so often that my Mom found a set of duckpin bowling balls at a yard sale that she got for me. Once, Tommy had even gotten some Fleetwood Mac concert tickets so we could all go to see their show.
I got up out of my seat and went over and talked to him again. I told him I was sorry that I didn’t recognize him and we both laughed. Then we shared a few more good-old-day stories. I haven’t seen him since or at least I don’t think I’ve seen him since.
Elivera Mathilda Carlson Doud and Clint Hill were a very unlikely couple. In the real “couple” sense of the word, they really weren’t a couple. Their lives just happened to be thrown together. You might say Clint’s job brought him into Elivera’s life.
There was over fifty years difference in Elivera’s and Clint’s ages. Elivera would be the older one. Both were born to immigrants. Elivera’s parents came from Sweden and Clint’s parents came from Norway. Elivera was born in Boone, Iowa. Clint was born in Larimore, North Dakota. Elivera was an only child. When Clint was seventeen days old, his mother had him baptized and then left him on the steps of the North Dakota Children’s Home for Adoption in Fargo. Three months later he was adopted by Chris and Jennie Hill.
Elivera would eventually marry and settle in the Denver, Colorado area. Clint would marry, too, but his life and his job would require him to travel world-wide, but he would call Washington DC his home for many years.
Clint never imagined that his path would ever cross Elivera’s. He played football, basketball, baseball, track, ice hockey and he wanted to coach athletics and teach history. His family attended Evangelical Lutheran Church where he was an altar boy.
Clint was always known for his promptness. He tells the story of how he had a 10:00 p.m. curfew when he was younger. Once he came in at 10:08. His Dad was waiting for him and as soon as he walked into the door he said, “You’re late!” Before Clint could ever even utter an excuse, his father grabbed him by the shirt collar and lifted him off the floor. He told him, “Don’t you ever walk into this house late again!” Clint never did, and he was probably never late again for anything for the rest of his life.
Clint was offered a one-hundred-dollar scholarship to attend Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. He met Gwen Brown at college and they eventually married. He was then drafted into the US Army. On one of the Army test his scored well in an area where the Army was looking for a particular type of individual. He was instructed to report to Fort Holabird, in Dundalk, Maryland. He would attend the Army Intelligence School where he would learn to be an agent in counterintelligence.
Clint was assigned to Region IX 113th Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) Field Office in Denver, Colorado. He said of his work there, “My work consisted mostly of running background investigations on individuals who were being considered for various security clearances in the US government – up to and including ‘Top Secret.’”
While Clint was stationed in Denver, the President came in for a trip but suffered a heart attack and was rushed to a local hospital. The President would stay there for seven weeks. Clint ended up meeting some of the Secret Service detail who were stationed at the hospital.
When Clint’s first child was born he decided to interview for some coaching and history teaching jobs in North Dakota and Minnesota, but he had no teaching experience. He ended up taking a job as a credit investigator in Chicago, with the Burlington and Quincy Railroad.
I’m not exactly sure why, but this is one of my favorite Bible stories ever since I was a teen and first heard it. It’s not action packed. There are only a total of twelve verses in the Bible that deal with the story. One of the main characters isn’t even given a name.
The main, nameless character I’m talking about is just some woman in a crowd and there are a lot of people in this crowd. In fact, it is just wall-to-wall people. As the crowd keeps pushing the other main character, those closest to him seem to be doing their best to clear a path for him. It doesn’t sound like they are finding much success.
Maybe what attracts me to this story is the nameless woman. It could be me in this crowd. It could be me looking, with hope, to the gentleman who may or may not walk within viewing distance, much less touching distance.
He spoke to the crowd, but she was just one woman. With so many people around, would he take just a moment out of his busy schedule to talk to her? I doubt it.
She was just a poor nobody. She probably thought of her life as hopeless. Maybe he would see her and have pity on her. I doubt it. There were too many other souls there demanding his attention.
One day Clint was driving past the Army hospital where he had met some of the Secret Service agents. He wondered what it would take to be a Secret Service agent. He decided to investigate. He found out that you had to pass a lot of background checks. You had to score highly on intelligence tests. And then you had to hope that an agent would retire or die because the jobs were scarce and in high demand. There were only 269 Secret Service agents.
Clint’s luck turned out to be pretty good. He passed the background checks and all the tests and most of all three agents retired. After he went through training it was on to his first assignment. He was off to Denver. Clint’s assignment was one few people ever even knew existed.
Clint was assigned the task of protecting the President’s eighty-year-old mother-in-law. Normally the President’s mothers-in-law don’t get Secret Service protection. But there were two reasons for it this time. The first reason was that she was in very poor health. She had a nurse but the President wanted to make sure she was watched over, too. The second reason was that they were afraid someone might kidnap her and use her as a bargaining chip.
I’m sure Clint’s ideas of what a Secret Service agent does never had a hint of watching a sick, eighty-year-old woman. Where was the adventure in that? Little did he know of the excitement Elivera Doud, the President’s mother-in-law would bring into his life.
One of the first nights Clint had on the job, he heard the Mrs. Doud cry out for her nurse. Clint figured the nurse would be up there in a minute. A little later Mrs. Doud cried out again for the nurse. Clint listened closely but didn’t hear any movement. He figured the nurse had fallen into a deep sleep, so he went up to the nurse’s room. Sure enough, there was the nurse just lying there on her bed. Clint went to touch her to wake her up. That’s when he noticed she was dead. What in the world was he to do now? Mrs. Doud again called for her nurse. Clint did not want to disturb Mrs. Doud with the news so he called out, “Just a minute.”
Clint quickly went into the maid’s room and told her the nurse was dead and asked if she could go help Mrs. Doud. He gave her strict instructions not to say anything to Mrs. Doud about the nurse’s death. He immediately called his boss who had a special car sent over so they could remove the body without anyone knowing. The last thing they needed was for the press to think Mrs. Doud had died and the President and his wife hadn’t even been told yet.
When the coroner arrived, Clint and the coroner wrapped the body in a blanket and carried the heavy woman down the stairs to the awaiting car. The President was notified. The next morning Mrs. Doud was just told that the nurse had died.
Clint Hill was eventually assigned as one of President Eisenhower’s Secret Service agents. We will never know if part of that decision was in the way he handled Eisenhower’s mother-in-law’s nurse’s death.
The Bible tells of a story of a poor, old woman. When I say poor, I mean really poor. Just like what often happens today, all her money had been spent on health care. She was very sick. She had been hemorrhaging for twelve years. She had seen all kinds of doctors. She had spent all her money on those doctors. She wasn’t any better, in fact, she was worse.
So she decided to go see Jesus. She had probably heard all the great stories of all the great healing he had done. But when she got there it seems everyone else had the exact same idea. The crowds were so large and the people were pressed up against Jesus. How in the world was Jesus going to be able to find one moment to give her any attention? There were too many other people.
All of a sudden Jesus was heading in her direction. He wasn’t heading directly at her but he was close enough that she could squeeze her hand through the crowd and touch his cloak. The most amazing thing happened: she stopped bleeding. Peace overcame her.
A new sense of life overcame her. Then a commanding voice charged in her direction. It said, “Who touched me?” Everyone was surprised because there were so many people pressed up against him. But she knew exactly who he was talking to.
Then, as if the sea parted, there he stood right in front of her, staring. She felt his eyes saying, “Is that you who touched me?” Embarrassed she confronted him with the truth that it was indeed her that touched him. Proudly Jesus said to her, “Your faith has made you whole and you are healed.”
President Eisenhower was never very personal with his agents. He was friendly to them but he always referred to them, no matter which one, by the name “Agent,” never by their real names.
When Elivera Doud, Eisenhower’s mother-in-law, passed away shortly before Eisenhower left office, Clint was part of the Secret Service team that was assigned to the private funeral service at Mrs. Doud’s home. He was given the task of being a lookout just outside the house. Mamie Eisenhower, Ike’s wife, came out to the door. She had a request. She said that she wanted the Secret Service agents who had helped attend to her Mom to be part of the service itself. Clint proudly went in.
Sometimes I believe we don’t realize the affect we have on other people. But we are the people who others ask, “Is it really you?” We are the teacher who the kids remember. We are the long ago friend who helped us have fond memories. We are the Secret Service agent who probably just thinks he is doing his job. Sometimes someone’s hope seems to be enlightened by our presence.
When Jesus sees us standing there helping others who are looking for role models and answers, don’t you want to be one of those who steps forward and hears him say of you, “Is it really you that is listening to my call?”
Prayer: Dear Mighty Father, I often look in the mirror and just see me. The farthest thought from my mind is that You have placed me in someone else’s path. Please let me see that I might just be there for a reason. Amen.
