Max Edward Thurmon, Union, LA submitted by: Hazel Welch Craig ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Weldon Community's Own: NEIGHBORHOOD HANDYMAN STILL BUSY: Written by: Walter Johnson of El Dorado, AR. Who was employed by the Bernice Newspaper. Article reprinted from: Centennial History and Memories of Weldon Baptist Church and Community 1900- 2000: Re-mark-a-ble.. That's a good word. I'll use it. This is me looking in the dictionary for a word that applies to a fellow in our community. There's a bunch more: plucky, courageous,dauntless. I'm talking about Max Edward Thurmon, seventy- plus, born about three fourths of a mile from where he lives now. When he was about nine years old, there was a grist mill down the road. He said his daddy would load sacks of corn on a mule and "I would ride the mule down to the grist mill and they would grind the corn into cornmeal. Also the fellow who owned the gristmill was Media's father. Her maiden name was Roach. While they ground the meal, I could play with my girl-friend, who is now my wife." Thurmon's father was J. S. Thurmon who was a dairy farmer and owned a syrup mill. Thurmon trims trees, builds fences, roofs carports, serves as a deacon in the church, helps load pulpwood and raised cattle for a while. What's so remarkable about that, you might say? Thurmon is blind. I know the P. C. Police are going to get me for this, but that's what he prefers. He refers to losing his eyesight as blind. He lost his vision while working for Texas Eastern Pipeline Company at a pumping station near Dubach in 1963. Thurmon was 37 years old. (He was born 1926). He said he was inspecting a lock on a valve. He bent down to shake the lock and it caused a fitting to rupture. He took the full force of the liquid in his face, which was under 900 lb. Per square inch of pressure. He was alone at the time. He said, "A coworker discovered me stumbling towards the control shack and said,"Good lord, Max, what happened?" The next think I knew, I was in an ambulance." All of that aside now, let's talk about the man. I knocked on the door last Saturday and he met me wearing wraparound dark glasses and a wraparound smile. He stuck his hand out and said, "Hi, Walter." I said, "I need to take a picture." He said, "I can't take a picture." He said,"I can't take a picture like this, unshaven." I didn't even ask him that stupid question. He probably shaves and never considers it. I started quizzing him about some of the stuff in the community I hear he does. Thurmon becomes animated when he talks and points and says, "See the fence down the front of the house?" He said his wife Media said he needs to trim the trees because she's tired of raking leaves. So, he got a ladder, climbed the trees and pruned them. Then he built a new fence. He smiled as he related to me, "Since my accident, I have trouble sleeping sometimes. Sometimes I am wide awake at midnight. If I can't sleep, I'll get up and do something. Dark doesn't bother me, so I go out and build on my fence." What's funny was, he could hear the traffic on the highway (2 Alt.) Slow down and maybe even stop and he could just in his mind figure the people were trying to figure out what crazy person was building a fence at midnight. I don't know if it's possible, but I think this guy sees with his heart. "When I have a task, I sit down first and decide how I'm going to go about doing it. It may take a little longer, but a man can do about anything he wants to do if he just has the determination." We walked out in the back yard, sort of a courtyard with a roofed patio. He said, "See the roof on the patio? I wasn't able to do the brickwork, but I put the roof on it." Then he started pointing out to me cottonwood trees that he had trimmed. He said, "I have one project over there," and pointed at a tree still standing. What he does is, he puts the ladder against the trees, prunes the branches, then he cuts sections, of the tree, to fell to keep from hitting the house, then he takes the trunk down in sections. The picture that was with this article shows him with a truck that he has recently acquired. He says he's going to fix it up. Thurmon said that he's always been a jack of all trades. He said, "Neighbors would always call me to do odd jobs and I would. They still do and I still do. Whatever I'm able to do,the Lord does it, I'm just the tool. I said, "Mr. Thurmon, I hear you're a deacon in the church." Modestly, he said, "They say I am." Another story he related to me. He said, "The most frightened I ever was since the accident." He said, "One day, I got a phone call. It was my daughter, Shelia Ann. She said, "Daddy, It's not as bad as it sounds, but I think I have shot myself." Well, you can imagine what went over me. There I was alone. About that time, there was a knock on the door. It was a lady named Reba. I said, "Reba, you've got to carry me to Shelia Ann's." Instead, we went out to where Shelia Ann's husband was working in a pasture and he became so excited, he went off and left me. So Reba carried me on to Shelia Ann's and I discovered that what had happened was that she had picked up her husband's varmint shooting pistol which was lying on the mantel. She picked it up to put it away and dropped it and it discharged when it hit the floor. The bullet entered the fleshy part of her thigh and the doctor wouldn't remove it until later on because Shelia was pregnant at the time." Once again Thurmon had a big smile when he said his daughter said, j"As long as you're, Daddy, here, everything is okay." As I was leaving he walked me out to the car and said, "One thing I really hate since I have been blind. I like children and sometimes young children are shy, but If I can get them in my lap for a few minutes they'll take to me and I regret not being able to see the smile on their face,but I know it's there in my mind." See what I mean about seeing with his heart? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Following poem written by Max Edward and printed in the Weldon Baptist Church Book at same time as above article printed. MY EYES ARE GONE: By: Max Edward Thurmon My eyes are gone, I can't see my way. With my hand in His, He leads me every day. He is not pleased with the life I am living, I asked and my sins He has forgiven. He will do the same for you. Just say, "Lord, I need you too." Accept Him today and don't delay, On earth this could be the final day. One day in Heaven I know I will be. He will open my eyes and His face I will see. Submitted by: Hazel Welch Craig, Camden, TN. I've known Max Edward since childhood and he is a wonderful Christian man.