Robert C. Baker - Angel in the Fire: A Miracle in the Life of Robert Baker

ANGEL IN THE FIRE

A Miracle in The Life of
Robert Baker

Robert C. Baker

Copyright 2010, 2015 Robert Baker.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-6968-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-6970-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-6969-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015902138

WestBow Press rev. date: 02/06/2015

CONTENTS

ANGEL IN THE FIRE
A Miracle in the Life of Robert Baker

CHAPTER ONE
Life in Griffinsburg

CHAPTER TWO
My Parents

CHAPTER THREE
The Holidays

CHAPTER FOUR
My Elementary School

CHAPTER FIVE
My Dads Stroke

CHAPTER SIX
The Accident

CHAPTER SEVEN
The Hospital

CHAPTER EIGHT
Gerdie Printz

CHAPTER NINE
Home from the Hospital

CHAPTER TEN
Growing in the Lord

CHAPTER ELEVEN
Cornfield

CHAPTER TWELVE
My Own Family

There are many to whom I owe a word of thanks for their help with the writing of this book.

First, thanks to the Culpeper Regional Hospital for their cooperation in this project of love. They have provided valuable information and photographs. From their earliest days, they have been in the business of saving lives (I am one of those lives) and improving the lives of those who have health issues. There is no doubt in my mind that the good Lord used this hospital as well as its first surgeon, Dr. Grahame Henson, to save my life.

Special thanks to June Henson, Dr. Hensons wife, and also to the Culpeper Star Exponent for referenced newspaper articles for the information about Dr. Grahame Henson.

Thanks to Georgia Mae Lanham for the information about Sam (her husband and my dear friend) and for the photograph of their family.

Thanks to the Museum of Culpeper history for their valuable information and photographs.

Very special thanks go to C. F. Yates, without whom this books story would not have been completed. He and his family have been my friends and have truly been a part of my extended family for many years. C. F. provided invaluable information about life in the 1960s, and especially life in Griffinsburg.

Thanks to my sister, Nina Baker Peyton, who helped me research the information in this book. Her memory was invaluable.

To the memory of Conner and Elsie Yates, Frankie Yates, Sam Lanham, Gerdie Printz, Grahame Henson, Dorothy Kelly, and above all, my parents, Henry and Virginia Baker.

Thanks to Ruby, my wife of 40 years, our two children Angela and Richard, and the wonderful grandchildren that they have given us.

When I first met Robert a few years ago, I was amazed by his unyielding personal faith in Jesus Christ. Recently retired from a very successful lifetime of hard work in the business world, Robert along with his wife Ruby attended our church while on vacation.

Immediately, we shared kindred spirits when I learned that he loved to share his faith with others. There are millions of people in the world including the United States of America who have never heard a clear presentation of the gospel. His heart as my heart was in evangelism and missions.

Soon after meeting Robert, I heard him share about the traumatic event that happened when he was fifteen years old. That tragedy had transformed his life in so many ways, and yet he told me that he had seldom shared it in public. I saw how my congregation responded so powerfully to his message. WE played his testimony on our churchs weekly radio program on WPAQ 740 in Mount Airy, and I listened as people would ask about Robert and had appreciated his testimony.

From all those multiple responses to his testimony, I told him that he should write his story down and share it with people around the United States and around the world.

This book fulfills the challenge that was given two years ago. Roberts father was ill and at fourteen years of age, he began working to help support his family. A year and a half later, the accident happened. Angel in the Fire tells the story of that accident. You will laugh and you will cry, and at the end of the story all one can say is to the good Lord be the Glory! Along the way, the reader will know something about life in the 60s in rural Griffinsburg, Virginia.

ANGEL IN THE FIRE

A Miracle in the Life of
Robert Baker

FOR IT CAME TO PASS,

WHEN THE FLAME WENT UP TOWARD HEA VEN

THAT THE ANGEL OF THE LORD

ASCENDED IN THE FL AME

JUDGES 1 3:20

CHAPTER ONE
Life in Griffinsburg

My Beginning

I, Robert Carroll Baker, was born on Sunday at home in Ole Hollow, the home of my grandfather Hubert Baker and his wife Mary Bailey, in Rappahannock County, Virginia, on May 21, 1950, to Henry Irvin (Dec. 21, 1912-Dec. 5, 1966) and Virginia Elizabeth Baker (July 25, 1916-Feb. 16, 1996). I was born near Sperryville and not far from Old Rag Mountain. Behind the house, one could see Skyline Drive. My parents were married on February 5, 1936. They had nine sons and two daughters in the following order: James, John, Mary Ann, Charles, Edward, Nina, Robert (me), Herbert, Henry, George, and Wayne. When the main event of this bookthe accidenthappened, I was 15 years old, and there were only five of us children at home. All were boys, and I was the oldest.

When I was seven years old, my family moved from Rappahannock County to Culpeper County and lived for a while in the small community of Winston that is just south of Culpeper on route 522 South, also known as Zachary Taylor Highway. We had neighbors named Luther and Gerdie Printz. Gerdie was a strong Christian, and she would become very dear to me during the time of the accident. Luther worked for the highway department and he helped me get a job after the accident. Sometimes I mowed their yard. Gerdie Printz was a distant relative of our family.

From Winston, we moved six miles west of Culpeper to the village of Griffinsburg. The accident and the subsequent miracle took place in Griffinsburg.

Griffinsburg

Griffinsburg is located on Route 522 North, just 6 miles from the historic town of Culpeper, Virginia, in the surrounding county of the same name. Culpeper is often voted one of the 10 best small towns in the United States. Originally named Fairfax Town, it later took the name of the Culpeper Court House.

The Virginia House of Burgesses named a young George Washington as Culpeper Countys first surveyor in 1749. Not only did he survey the entire area, but following the mandate of the House of Burgesses, he laid out the 10-block downtown area that is the historic downtown today.

The beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains are ever-present. Over 100,000 people every year travel west from Culpeper on Route 522/Sperryville Pike and pass through Griffinsburg, Boston, and Sperryville on their way to Old Rag Mountain, which is three miles of exposed granite a hikers dream on one of the crests of the Blue Ridge Mountains. A part of the Shenandoah National Park, the views are spectacular, and Old Rag Mountain overshadows the region including the town of Griffinsburg. The main range of the Blue Ridge lies to the west of Old Rag Mountain. One can see the powerful and majestic hand of the good Lord in this beautiful mountain range. With Sam Lanham, whom you will meet later in this book, we would go to the window and look at the Blue Ridge Mountains and understand how they declared the glory of the good Lord. We would also pray together, and Sam would sing.