One Life, Many Testimonies a Legacy of God's Grace and Mercy

Copyright © 2017 by Barbara Brannon

ISBN: 9780999743737

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture is taken from

Kings James Version (KJV)

Copyright 2000 by Zondervan

Printed by

Printed in the United States of America

TABLE OF CONTENT

FOREWARD

BY DINNA COLEMAN

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PART I

LIFE BEFORE MYASTHENIA GRAVIS

PROLOGUE

PART II MYASTHENIA GRAVIS

MY TWENTY- FOUR YEAR BATTLE

CHAPTER ONE

50/50 CHANCE OF SURVIVING

CHAPTER TWO

WHEN I MET JESUS

CHAPTER THREE

GOD SENT ME A HUSBAND

CHAPTER FOUR

NEW LIFE IN OKLAHOMA

CHAPTER FIVE

WHEN THE DOCTORS SAID NO, GOD SAID YES

CHAPTER SIX

GOD ALLOWED ME TO LIVE AND RAISE MY CHILDREN

CHAPTER SEVEN

HEALED AND DELIVERED

PART III

THE YEARS IN BETWEEN

1990 – 2012

CHAPTER EIGHT

FAMILY STRUGGLES AND TRIUMPHS

PART IV CHRONICLES OF BREAST CANCER

CHAPTER NINE

TESTING AND DIAGNOSIS

CHAPTER TEN

CHEMOTHRAPY TREATMENTS

CHAPTER ELEVEN

LUMPECTOMY BREAST SURGERY

CHAPTER TWELVE

RADIATION TREATMENTS

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THE RESIDUAL SIDE EFFECTS

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

ALMOST NORMAL

FORWARD BY DINNA COLEMAN

Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in good health, even as thy soul prospereth. 3 John 2

Let me invite you into the world of Barbara Brannon’s miraculous testimonies telling the readers about how God is still in the healing business. Some might say healing was back in the New Testament times, but reading this book will let us know that healing is still going on today.

When I met Barbara in 1972, she was suffering from a disease that the doctors said was incurable. God healed her body. In 2012, she was diagnosed with stage four Breast Cancer. Barbara trusted and believed that God would heal her in his timing. As 1 Peter 2:24 says, Who his own self-bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

God did just that; He healed her. As you read this book, my prayer is that if you are going through a sickness, you will trust and have faith to believe in God, that He will heal you, too.

DEDICATION

A few years ago, God placed in my heart the desire to write a book to leave as a legacy of His grace and mercy in my life. I wrote this book chronicle God’s forgiveness of my sin-sick-soul, and His healing of my weak and diseased body. I want to share the story of God’s great love throughout our family history with my six grandchildren, Michelle, Kayla, Kolin, Jillian, Nathan and Jackson Brannon, whom I dearly love, and all those to come.

To my lovely Daughter-in-laws, Jena and LaWanda I appreciate your love for my sons and the knowledge, wisdom, happiness, and joy that you have brought to our family. I thank and praise God for bringing both of you in my life.

To Larry II, David, and Carla, you probably didn’t understand the struggles you watched me go through as I suffered from Myasthenia Gravis when you were young children, but, through it all, you learned to trust in God, now you know He is a deliverer.

To my grandchildren, you may not have understood when I lost my hair and got so weak in my body that I could only sit on the couch and watch you play while I was going through breast cancer treatments. But, to God be the glory, you have seen too, what God can do when you pray and trust Him. I’m healed and free of cancer today.

I want you all to know that I love God. He is in me, and I am in Him, and He wants to be in your life too. If you pray, believe God, give your heart to Jesus, trust Him with your life and everything concerning you, He will keep you, comfort you, guide you, and direct you in all your life’s situations. I leave you this legacy of God’s grace and mercy. I dedicate this book;

ONE LIFE, MANY TESTIMONIES

With all my love!

MIMI

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To God be the glory for the things He has done. I could never have written this book without the leading of the Lord. In July 2011, I was invited to attend A Women’s Conference lead by Pastor Gloria Fenceroy, at the Mount Olive Church of Plano in Plano, Texas. The spirit of the Lord was great in that place, and during the service, I was given a prophecy by the guest speaker, Sister Crystal Sparks. She had never heard my testimony nor had we met. She prophesied, You are supposed to write a book to leave here as a legacy to your grandchildren of the life you have lived with Christ Jesus. I never told her or anyone I had been thinking of writing a book to share my testimony. Now after several years, the Lord has brought this book to fruition. I want to thank Prophetess Sparks for allowing the Lord to use her to speak into my life as a witness to the work God had already given me.

I would like to thank, the Man of God, my friend, my wonderful husband, my honey, for being so patient with me in the process of this project. He nicknamed the computer my boyfriend. Yes, I spent a lot of time typing and retyping with my boyfriend. Thank you, Honey, my true boyfriend, and partner, for giving me the space to answer the call and share my story.

To Mrs. Lucille Thrinery, author of Writing My First Book who talked with me on a few occasions before I got started writing and pointed me in the right direction; straight to the library.

Thank you, LaMesa Butler-Phea, a wonderful friend and sister in the Lord, who read my manuscript. She pulled out of me all that I missed and push me forward when I wanted to quit, because I did not realize it would be so hard to write a book.

To Sister Dinna Coleman, who became my friend and closest sister when I moved to Oklahoma from Connecticut more than 45 years ago; she was the one I could call anytime, because she has walked with me through the most of my sickness, and she knew the pain and struggles I endured. Thank you, for being there for my family and me and for writing the Forward for this book.

To Darlene, my sister- in -law. (So glad we never use that phrase). You are my sister; you mean more to me than I can express. Thank you for showing me your love from the very first time we met. You have been there for me through every sickness I’ve had to deal with in my family; I love you, Sister.

To all the Doctors at Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut who diagnosed my problem with Myasthenia Gravis then worked so hard to treat me, even when it looked like I would die at any time.

To the Doctors at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center in Oklahoma City, OK, and the oncology team at The Peggy And Charles Stephenson Cancer Center of Oklahoma who treated me for breast cancer.

To my surgeon who encouraged me, when he said You are a survivor before we even started the treatments.

To Lilliebeth Sanger-Brinkman, Sarah Horton and LaWanda Brannon for giving a second, third and fourth set of eyes to edit my manuscript. I pray God’s blessings for you all for your time and patience helping me with my project.

To my loving son, David L. Brannon, for designing the cover and formatting the picture pages of my project. Thank you for a job well done.

Mr. Darrell King, thank you for counseling and directing me in self-publishing my book to the world.

To all who have encouraged and helped me complete this project.

THANK YOU!

PART I

LIFE BEFORE MYASTHENIA GRAVIS

Prologue

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

I’d like to take you on a journey through my life that started in the South during the 1950s. I was raised in the small community of Bradford Heights, in Gastonia, North Carolina, located on the southeast part of the United States of America, and also living up north in New Haven, Connecticut, one of the New England states along the eastern coastline of the Atlantic Ocean. I felt like a little ragdoll being pulled back and forth.

In the community where I was born, there weren’t many black families that owned cars, so most people had to walk for miles up the hill around the long dirt road to catch a bus to get into town. I remember walking up and down that road many times as a child with my Grandparents. In later years, the road was covered in black tar and named New Hope Road. Eventually, the bus came down into the neighborhood to pick up those riders. My

Grandma Duff said that was a blessing from God for everyone.

My mother, Johnsie L. Carter, was the oldest of eight children; (seven girls and one boy) born to Lucille and Arthur Carter. Mama said she didn’t know where all those babies were coming from! All she knew was that they were her sisters and brother and she had to help take care of them. She told me about her life growing up and that she was never told anything about the reproductive system of a woman or sex. She said she would often wonder, but when she asked about the babies that kept coming to her house, she was told the stork brought them, or they came from a tree trunk and even from the Sears and Roebuck department store.

My Grandma Carter suffered from Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), which is a long-term autoimmune disorder that primarily affects the joints. It resulted in swollen and painfully stiff joints that caused her to be confined to her bed for most of her life. She was not able to walk during her last two pregnancies. She was able to rule her home from her bed. She taught my mother how to cook, wash clothes and keep the house clean. As the children grew older, they all had chores to do to help keep the house running.

My Grandpa Carter was employed at the local cotton mill. He loved his family and worked hard to take care of them. After living uptown in a rented house for years, Grandpa saved enough money and brought some land in a newly developed community called Bradford Heights. After working long hours in the cotton mill, he would go down to his property and work on constructing their new home. He also planted a large vegetable garden to help feed his family, and a few walnut trees. When the house was finished enough that they could live in it, Grandpa moved his family from uptown Gastonia to their new home outside of in the countryside. He wanted to lift his wife’s spirits, so, he planted beautiful rose bushes all around the house, especially in the front yard where she could see them from her bedroom window. She loved those gorgeous roses!

Due to Grandma Carter’s sickness, Mama had a lot of responsibility put on her at a very young age. At sixteen years old, she had her first encounter with a young boy named Buster McDowell. Even at that age, she didn’t know where babies came from. She got pregnant, but didn’t know what was happening to her; until she delivered a baby girl, that her mother named Luvenia Ann.

With even more responsibility placed on her caring for her baby as well as her younger siblings, Johnsie, sought love and attention. She soon met another attractive teenage boy in her new neighborhood named James Duff. They got to know each other, and she fell head over heels in love with him. A year and a half later she found out she was pregnant again. She had another baby girl that she named Barbara Jean. That was the name she gave to me, but I was called Jean most of the time. A year later my Daddy and another young girl had a baby girl together that they named Deborah. We shared the same Grandparents, so we grew up knowing we were sisters and playing with each other often. My parents, Johnsie and James, conceived again. This time, they had a little boy that they named Clarence Taft. After delivering three babies of her own, she now knew where babies came from. Because she wasn’t married and still living with her parents and siblings, the stress of it all caused her to have a nervous breakdown. She was sent away to rest and get professional help. Her parents gave the babies to family members to help her raise them.

My daddy, James C. Duff (born to Grier and Beadie Duff) also came from a large family of eight children; (three girls and five boys). My daddy, the second youngest, was still in high school when I was born. Because of my mother’s health condition, my paternal Grandparents raised me. They loved me very much. I was the life of their house and enjoyed every minute of it. My Grandpa Duff, owned acres of land with apple, peach, and pecan trees as well as a vast vegetable garden and colorful flowerbeds. From picking vegetables from the garden to cooking for dinner and even giving lots of vegetables away, Grandma Duff always said her work was never done. She also canned lots of vegetables to put up for the winter months. She stayed busy baking her delicious coconut cakes that I loved, or making clothes for people on her old black foot paddled sewing machine. Grandma taught all three of her daughters how to cook good food and sew.

My Grandpa and Grandma Duff were always helping other people. They were the first family in our neighborhood to own a telephone. They left the skeleton key hanging on a nail on the doorpost of the porch; everybody was welcome to go in and use the phone, even when no one was at home. That was the kind of people they were, sweet and patient and always willing to help someone.

I remember all the times I got to spend with my family. Since both of my families lived in the same neighborhood, I could see my mother’s parents anytime I wanted to. I would just cross the road and walk through our neighbors’ yard that met in my Grandpa Carter’s yard. We called it going out the path. We walked through the garden and into the backyard right past the water well.

That water well used to scare me when I was a child because my Grandpa Carter warned the kids not to play around the well, for fear of one of them falling in. The well was very deep, and he would drop a bucket with