We moved to the outskirts of the city of Corydon, Indiana where we spent much of our school years. We continued to attend the Branham Tabernacle the years I was growing up. My parents became good friends with Brother and Sister George Wright. Their daughter was Sister Hattie Wright Mosier; their son we knew as Brother Shelby.
During my childhood, we visited their homes often. My father loved to sit and talk with the family to hear stories of the time spent with Brother Branham. Their home was nestled way back on the edge of the woods; the driveway was so long and full of turns, I recall.
Their conversations were always in the background as us children enjoyed the beautiful summers blessed with the watermelons Brother Shelby grew on the farm. He told my father that Brother Branham had prayed over his crops, and he grew some of the largest food I had ever seen! And I doubt that it was hybrid. I remember the potatoes were so very large in his hands as he handed many of them to dad. The corn was long and full ears and so very good. He would always send us home with the back of our station wagon full of vegetables and watermelons. Sis. Wright always shared with mom the canned goods she put up from the garden.
I often remember going into the Wright’s kitchen from the back door to get a cold drink. On the counter sat a silver galvanized bucket and a homegrown gourd carved into a handy dipper. Brother Shelby taught us how to pull up water from the well. We were all very interested and learned how to snap that bucket down to fill it. Brother Shelby was a very patient man, waiting on each of us to learn the rope, He would take us for walks along the shaded woods, pointing out ginseng. This plant was one way Bro. Shelby made money. He showed us how to find it, how to dig it, and dry it out. The best part was taking it to trade for a nice sum of money. Life was simple, and we were so blessed.
Our many visits to Sister Hattie’s home are engraved on my heart and mind. Dad carried coal in for her and did everything he could to help Sister Hattie around her little farm. I remember gathering eggs for her from the henhouse. We would sit inside her humble home quietly after days ends listening to her tell the stories about the many visits from Brother Branham. The one visit that I always remember her sharing is how her two sons received their salvation.
I learned and recognized that Presence early in my life.
Then there was dear Sister Georgia Carter from Milltown, IN. She never married. She was a close friend with the Wright family. Sister Georgia was healed after lying in bed for over nine years with TB. Her story is on the tapes. My family shared many visits through the years at her home. She would take us into the room where the piano sat. She told us this was the piano she played after she was healed. She would always play the old songs of Zion for us as we sang them together. The bedroom remained the same, as it was when the prophet had visited her. We would all sit in that room and talk about the healing and all the details from that visit from Brother Branham. These were hallowed places to me, which God had ordained us to visit.
She prayed with me and gave me her blessings in 1995 when I married. That meant a lot to me. She had this little laugh that she would always end with a cooing sound like a dove; she was so gentle. The prophet told of the vision of her as a little lamb bleating in Milltown, IN. I was blessed to grow up around her. I returned several times after I married before she passed on to meet her reward in 1998.
One more place we were blessed to visit frequently as children was Sister Georgia Bruce’s home outside of Corydon, IN. She lived with her sister Edna and the two never married. Sister Bruce attended the Branham Tabernacle in the early years. On the “Table” which the Voice of God Recordings produced, there is a private interview Brother Branham has with Sister Georgia Bruce. It is a very precious reminder of the way our Lord looks at us through His Blood. She told my parents about one of the times Brother Branham came to visit her with his family. She said the prophet told her that the pillar of fire hung over the Lord’s Supper picture in her dining room. Now that was a hallowed place to me.
The Lord had plans for me later to care for Sister Bruce in her home in Clarksville, IN until she had to go to a nursing home. She was always such a blessing to be around and full of the Holy Ghost. I learned so much about the love of God from these elder sisters. Those years were priceless to me.