And—and there, friends, is where my sorrows started. I listened to my mother-in-law in the stead of God. He was giving me the opportunity. And there this gift would’ve been manifested long time ago, if I’d just went ahead and done what God told me to do. But instead of that, I didn’t want her to be angry, and I didn’t want to hurt nobody’s feelings. And so I just—just let it go like that. Just walked, I just said, “All right, we won’t go.” And right there, the sorrows started. Immediately after that, my father died. My brother was killed a few nights later from that. I almost lost my own…I lost my father, my brother, my wife, my baby, and my sister-in-law, and almost my own life within about six month’s time. And just started going down. My church, pretty near everything went down, down, down. Hope taken sick.

Life Story, 1951-04-15, Phoenix, AZ, §80