That afternoon—. Deacon Williams was deacon of my church. Bless his
heart, he's dead and gone, too. Him and I was living out there on the
farm, and we was farming together. I told him about it, so we went to
pick up the young lady, Sister Jean Banks. She said, "I'll carry you to
my doctor." I said, "I'll be glad to. We'll try to get together and do
what thus said the Lord." Listen, now. This is a miracle, another
miracle, another miracle that happened. We got together and were going
down the street, sitting there, laughing and talking, and all at once
the Lord just began to speak to me. I began to listen to the Spirit. The
Spirit let me know, "This is not for you."I didn't know what to say,
what to do. She was sitting there and I was sitting there
Page 20 and Deacon Williams and his wife was sitting there. He
said, "What's happened, Bishop?" I sat there just listening to the
Spirit of God. God's just speaking with
[unclear]
. She said, "I don't know what's wrong with Johnny. He ain't
sayed nothing to me, ain't trying to talk to me or tell me nothing. I'm
just waiting here until somebody can tell me something." I said, "I'm
just waiting to nobody nothing.
[claps]
I'm going to listen to God." Going down the road at a normal speed,
[claps] almost sixty miles an hour. I
said, "Deacon, look! Look at that tire going down. Somebody done lost
their tire of the passenger side on the front." He said, "What in the
world is that?" I said, "I don't know." We were all just looking, and
all at once the car went and (started) doing like that, [makes bucking
motion with his hands] and kept doing it. Then all at once it just
dropped. I said, "
What in the world?" The Lord said,
"I done told you." Then Deacons said, "It was my tire coming by me." I
knew it was something the Lord kept speaking to me, and I wasn't sure. I
kept sitting there praying. Got to her doctor, and he had a whole lot of
people for the same day. So when he got to us he said, "Look,
you not going to match her." He came straight out and
told me, "You not going to match her." I said, "What you mean, doctor?"
"You not going to match her." So she went back and talked to the doctor,
and soon in ten minutes he (said), "All right, y'all come in." He took
my blood, took her blood, then went on back and done the tests. He said,
"I'm sorry to tell you, but yours not matching hers. Your
blood are supposed to match. She said, "What are you talking
about?" He said, "His blood not matching yours. Y'all not a good couple.
Just not. Can't do it." He kept on fumbling around and said, "Well, I'm
going to go ahead and let it pass, since you so anxious." I still wasn't
saying nothing; I was still hearing what the Lord says, and got to
thinking, trying to figure out how I was going to get out of it.
[Laughter] I went on, I went on, till we
finally, finally got married. While I was at her daddy's home, waiting
for her to come down the stairs and getting ready to go to Bishop
McKinley, he daddy was talking to me. He said, "This ain't going to
work." I kept hearing the Lord speak then. I had decided in my mind to
get up and go back to the bus
Page 21 station and catch
the bus back to Durham and forget all about it. By the time I got ready
to get up and go out of the house, dressed and everything, I said, "O
Lord." Spirit started, "I tell you to go to move." So we went on, and
Bishop McKinley talking to his wife, talking, "This ain't gonna work.
This ain't gonna work. You don't know. You haven't talked with Ms.
Banks. You don't know what we know." So Mother McKinley said, "Let me
talk to you, Bishop Moore. I need to talk to you and tell you
something." I did not know that Ms. Banks, three or four weeks before,
just had came from having a nervous breakdown. She really didn't know
what she was doing or what she was getting into. She already had a child
nine years old. Before she had that child, she tried to commit suicide
and kill herself. She tried to jump off the top of the house. But for
some reason the Lord didn't let nothing happen to her. When the child
was born, one of her legs was kind of afflicted. I didn't know that. I
met the child and I love the child. I love children. So we went on and
went on and finally we got married.
I tell you brother, ooo, I went through the mill with that woman. She
didn't want me to speak to nobody, didn't want me to shake peoples' hand
or greet the saints. You know how in some Bibles they'll great each
other with a holy kiss. [claps] You know
how that is. We were doing what the Bible say do. (She'd say), "I don't
want to hugging nobody." I said, "That woman don't mean a thing. You the
only woman that mean anything to me." (She said), "I don't know that.
Don't do that no more. Do that and I'm going to do something." I said,
"Do what you want to do." I went on, went on, went on. She didn't have
to work because I was working. I said, "Don't work if you don't feel
that way. Just stay here and take care of the house. Send the baby to
school and take care of everything you have to do."
She done that for a while, then said, "I think I might wanna work." I
said, "Look in the paper and find you something. Maybe somebody might
want to you do some housecleaning or something." She done that for a
while, then she went all biserk. I said, "What in the world!" She just
[unclear] screaming and then, then,
then—next thing I know—.
Page 22 I worked at Duke and got
sick one day. I went to the doctor and he said, "Mr. Moore, what's
wrong?" I said, "Doctor, I can't keep nothing on my stomach. I bring my
food and I can't eat. I'd go to the cafeteria. I don't understand. This
is not me. I'm not supposed to be like this. He came in and test me and
said, "You know what? You just recently got married?" I said, "Yes, I
sure did." (He said), "Well, I'll tell you what: your wife is (in the
family way.)" I said, "No, no, no, please don't tell me that." Two or
three days later I went home. I sat down and I began to talk. I said,
"Honey, let me tell you one thing. I been sick for two or three days. I
just can't half eat. I can't hardly eat when I come home, just don't
feel like nothing, vomiting
[unclear] .
Doctor told me to tell you that you was in the family way." (She said),
"No, no, no, I can't go through that. Can't go through that. No! Not
now." I said, "Well, it's there." So she finally went to Duke and they
told her. Ran all kinds of tests that they run (on rabbits. Rabbit test
always come out.) They said, "No, you're three months pregnant. She
said, "No, no, no, I'll never have that, I'll never go through that."
She done pretty good for a while. She got about five months, I came home
one day and she said, "Look at me." When you get about five months you
start coming out. I said, "That's nice. Ain't that cute! That's nice."
(She said), "Naw, it ain't. I don't know what you talking about. I don't
like that." I said, "Come on, what's wrong, what's wrong? That's what's
supposed to happen." (She said,) "Not me, not me." So I came home one
day, she was laying down. I said, "Why are you laying down? You don't
feel good?" (She said,) "Going the bathroom and look in that night pot."
I went in there and she done had a miscarriage; everything is laying in
the nightpot. I said, "What in the world has you
done?
What in the world has you done, girl? That's not right. You don't do
stuff like that. I hadn't hit you, I hadn't beaten or done nothing to
you. You haven't lifted nothing heavy or nothing." I know she loved to
clean the house and turn the stuff around, but I don't see where that
done it. I'll tell you this then and we'll skip that part. You know,
this sap out of the root you get out of the wood—the red root, you can
Page 23 drink that. It's good for your body. When
Grandma used to fix that on Sunday morning, we used to drink that when
we'd eat breakfast. But that white kind will run you blind, and it will
knock up babies. That's what she was drinking. I was talking to my god
mother, Ms. Shaw; she lived next door and we did, too. I said, "I seen
Jean going into part of that cabinet, Mother, eating something out of a
little mayonnaise jar; it's white and clear." She said, "Oh, my God! Oh,
my God, Bishop. I hate to tell you—. You mean to tell me she drink that
white sap (after tea?)" I said, "What in the world is that?" She said,
"The red kind you can drink." I said, "Grandma always fixed that for us;
we enjoyed it." She said, "But that white kind will run you crazy and
knock up babies." I said, "Is that what happened when she had that
miscarriage in that night that I told you about?" She said, "Yes, I
could have told you this, but I didn't want to, because I didn't want to
hurt your feelings." I kept seeing her going and drinking that, drinking
that. Every three or four months she would just drink that. O.K., the
first one was a set of twins, next time it was a set of twins. That's
four kids gone down the drain. Then later on she got like that again;
that was one; that was a little boy. Five kids she just flushed away.
The Bible tells us, "Don't take that you can't give." When you take a
child's life, you can't give it back. I don't care what you do. He'll
forgive you, but you done took that child's life. That could have been a
teacher, preacher, bishop; it could have been a president, anything. A
senator, anything. You don't do that. If God let's you conceive it,
you're supposed to bring it into the world, give birth to it, give it a
chance to survive and be what it ought to be. He didn't give it to you
just to be giving it to you. So from that it just grew worse and worse
and worse and worse. She'd run all around naked in the street, I'd get
her, bring her back home, talk with her, not try to beat her, and
[unclear] . They said, "That's what you're
supposed to do. You're husband and wife. You got a good husband. Got
married and don't nobody done nothing to nobody. That's a nice, educated
man, spiritual man. You'll regret it." "I don't want that. I ain't have
no children." She went up to my next god mother up the street, and (my
god mother says),
Page 24 "Let me take her, pray with her,
talk with her, and try to help her, let her see she done wrong." She
just kept getting worse and worse. The fifth day I went up there she got
mad, started fighting me. I said, "Jean, what's wrong with you?" "I
don't want to see you no more. I don't want to see you no more. You
ain't going to do me tonight. I ain't having no young ones for you. You
ain't going to fool me (for the young). So the doctor told her, "You
will conceive again, and the next time you conceive it will be
triplets." She said, "No, no. I ain't having no more youngings with him.
I'm leaving him. I'm going back home to Momma and Daddy." She went back
home to her momma and daddy, and in about three or four weeks I got
tired of being there by myself. So the Saturday I was off I went up
there to talk to him again I went up there again to talk to her. Her
daddy and told me, "Let me tell you one thing: I know you a good man and
good person, and her momma told me, too. But my daughter is a
religious fanatic." I think you kind of puzzled now,
ain't you?