“NOT SO HARD, GOD!”

When Juanita Rush was pregnant with David Stephen, her firstborn, she came home to Checotah to be with family. Her husband, David Marrs Rush, was TDY (military-speak for Temporary Duty) or out to sea, or she just wanted to be with her mama. You have to remember, she was 18 years old when David was born!

At that time, Peggy Carr Dodd and her daughter, Nancy Lynn Dodd, now Milam, were staying with Mama Carr while Peggy’s husband, Harry Dodd, was serving in the Korean Conflict aboard the USS ESSEX (CV-9), an aircraft carrier (David Marrs Rush also served onboard the ESSEX, albeit as an Airedale, after Harry Dodd had rotated off). Harry Dodd had been recalled to active duty approximately September, 1950, after serving a few years immediately after the end of World War II.

David Stephen Rush was born April 13, 1952, so Juanita would have been in Oklahoma late March, early April when those lovely Oklahoma thunderstorms come sweeping down the plains, as it were. Nancy Dodd would have been about four years old, and was a quite lovely four year old, full of spunk, and faith, and compassion, and so forth. Apparently, Nancy had been told by her mother, Peggy, she did not have to be afraid of thunder because it was just God rearranging his furniture up in heaven. To those of us who remember wooden floors, rearranging furniture by sliding it on wooden floors could be a noisy experience. A thunderstorm brewed up one day and soon turned into a loud affair. The storm continued to build and the thunderclaps continued. After one particularly loud clap, Nancy stuck her head out the back door and hollered up to heaven, “Not so hard, God!”

Those of us who know and love Nancy recognize the complete faith that God heard her, and the complete assurance of a four-year-old girl that God would obey her!

Juanita remembers quite vividly the picture of little Nancy Dodd, with her long red-haired pig tails, leaning out the back door and looking up at the sky. She also remembers that Nancy would come and pat her on her belly, quite swollen at that time, and telling her that she did not have to be afraid when the baby came.