Jimmy Summerlin was a man of God. He was a man who cherished his family. He wanted the best for them, not in terms of belongings, but in the sense of belonging. He protected his family, and he served his church family. It may be that Jimmy’s love and protection of his wife and kids was instigated by a conflict, a conflict that raged for most of his adult years. It was hard for Jimmy to open up to the extended family. The love for us was there, but it was restricted by a pull from his side of the family that said, “You don’t need them, we are all you need.” His mother spent all of his adult life making demands that her children love her the most. She would tell, at least her two youngest children, that their in-laws were out to get them. That they should not love us, or trust us, and that we were inferior to her. She constantly demanded that they make choices between her, and us. They were even expected to choose her over their spouse.

As a result of the turmoil it wasn’t until the latter years of his short life that Jimmy came to show his love for us. As he came to see the situation as it really was he confronted his mother, and began to cherish the extended family more and more while not casting her aside. He came to realize that everyone could be loved equally. Jimmy was my brother-in-law. He died of a massive heart attack at the age of forty-four.

Craig Hunt is a man of God. He loves and cherishes his family very much. He has taught his children values, and raised them to be servants of the Lord. He protests his family and they are second only to God in his life. Craig has embraced his in-laws as his on from the time he came into the family. In fact he considers his wife’s mom and dad to be his mom and dad. Craig is the product of a broken home. He is the product of mental abuse. He is a man who only saw conflict in his family life as he grew up. To him there was really no love in his family. Because of that experience, Craig has embraced us as his own, and shown us all love without reservation. He is so close to his children and their families, and to his mother-in-law, and father-in-law, that they literally live in houses attached by an above ground deck that extends from one home to the next. He hugs his family every day. He works, if you can call it working, with his father-in-law everyday. He serves his family, and God’s family everyday. Craig is my brother-in-law.

Please allow me to explain why I have introduced you to these men. I wanted to show you how much family means, or meant to each of them, and the roads they traveled as they matured in love. Now I want to show you another aspect of injuries that can hinder a family body, a physical family body, or a spiritual family body.

We talked yesterday about Mike’s physical injury not allowing his body to function, as it should. Today I want to talk about the mental injury that can cause even more destruction to the family.  Jimmy and Craig were both Troopers with the Texas Department of Public Safety. Both have experienced danger, and witnessed death. Both have worked horrific accident scenes. Both have witnessed the crying family members as they look at the mangled remains of a loved one taken from them forever. Both had to learn to deal with the harsh reality of what they saw at the scene of an accident.   

I was riding with Jimmy one night as he worked. We had stopped a few drivers on I20 and given them the opportunity to pay the State for their heavy foot. Around midnight we drove over to the courthouse and got a cup of coffee. While we were there the conversation turned to an accident they had all worked that afternoon. There must have been eight or ten men from different law agencies gathered that evening, and each of them had their input into the conversation. The accident had involved only one vehicle, but four men had lost their lives that day. As the Officers talked about the carnage the story began to take on a life of it’s own, and soon they were all laughing, as each gave his take on what may have cause the accident. Then they began laughing as they described how ridicules it was watching as the paramedics did CPR on a hopelessly dead body. When Jimmy and I got back in the patrol car I asked, “Jimmy how can do that, how can you laugh like that?” He said, ”You have to laugh at it to keep from going insane.”

I never rode with Craig while he was on duty. I don’t know why, I just never did. I do remember the time though after he had been with the DPS for a few years. He called me and asked if I knew whether or not Shell Oil was hiring. I told him I didn’t know, and then asked why he wanted to know. “I don’t think I need to do this anymore.” he said. That day Craig had been sent to work an auto accident. When he got there he saw the bodies of a young mother and her child. He worked the accident like a professional, and was not affected by what he saw. It was later that day, after he had gotten home from work that he came to realize something that shook him to his core. He had not been affected by the scene. He had been cold to the horrors of reality. Two young souls had died, and he didn’t care.

Both men had become cold, and heartless. Both had been affected while protecting themselves by not being affected. When we as members of the family body become unaffected, and cold to the overall good of the body it is worse then being physically injured in the body. It’s when we just don’t care about, or choose to ignore the needs of the body that we do the most damage. Jimmy went on to tell me that evening that to him those bodies were not people. 

I don’t fault either man with their way of handling the death they saw. They had to protect themselves. Eventually both men left the patrol division of the DPS, and became License and Weight Officers. That change took them away from what they had come to hate, and it allowed them to feel again. You know friends, if you are cold to God, if you are not affected by the hurt of a family member, if you cause division in the family because you just don’t care, or you think you are better than them, you need to change. A body with a hardening heart will die. A body with a cold hard heart is already dead.

Till next time,

Grump