Your Life in His Hands TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION Mini-book

Steve slowed down as he saw his two friends, on the bike ahead of him pull over to a lay by and then he spotted a young woman at the side of the road. He watched as the three spoke briefly then his gaze followed the girl as she got back in her car.
He pulled in behind the car as his friends headed off on their bikes with an empty petrol can and swinging his long legs off the bike, he walked round the white Capri which sported a black Vinyl roof, noticing that the girl was reaching down to the floor of the car for something he sat heavily on the bonnet anticipating her look of surprise when she saw him. She immediately looked up and as their eyes met, time seemed to stand still for both of them. Their eyes locked and for several minutes not a word was spoken. Then each began to feel self conscious and embarrassed, this had never happened before.
The young woman, Geraldine looked away feeling a mixture of embarrassment and confusion. ‘I know him’ she thought ‘I’ve known him all my life’. Then Steve asked her name. Geraldine had never liked her name, so on impulse she made up a name Dina thinking ‘rhymes with Tina and anyway I am still using letters that are in my name’ she had to look away again when she gave him her name but once she had said it she was able to look back at him and again their eyes locked. ‘What’s yours?’ she asked and Steve gave her, his name.
Geraldine told Steve that she hadn’t seen him pull up with his friends and he smiled telling her that his bike was parked behind her car.
Steve’s friends came back with petrol and drove off leaving them alone together.
They walked hand in hand through the countryside, climbed a hill and gazed down on the Hertfordshire valley; they were completely at ease with each other answering the many questions about themselves, sharing dreams for the future. They had both heard of love at first sight but because, until then had never experienced it, neither had really believed in it.

When Steve asked Geraldine who he knew as Dina, if she was married Geraldine said no, omitting to mention the fact that she had been married and was now divorced. She didn’t tell him that she had three children either deciding to see how things progressed between them. ‘After all’ she thought ‘we’ve only just met, even though I feel as if I’ve known him all my life’.

The sun shone brilliantly from the pastoral blue April sky picking out silvery glints on the river which snaked around the basin of the valley, around tiny houses and a grey stone church its steeple reaching up to the sky. They sat against a fallen log drinking in the view and fro time to time, each other. Geraldine thought that Steve was handsome in a rugged sort of way, he was tall, about 6 feet 2, broad shouldered and narrowed hipped. His face was manly with a strong, square jaw but there was something almost boyish about his shy smile. He had a slight squint in his right eye which put her in remind of Clint Eastwood. Streaks of gold in his thick chestnut hair made Geraldine feel that she would like to paint his portrait but she also wanted to run her fingers through his hair but fought to resist the impulse.
Steve, watching Geraldine’s profile as she gazed down at the valley, thought she was very pretty, her small features accentuating her delicate bone structure. When he had looked into her large dark eyes, it seemed to him that he was drowning in deep pools through which he could see her sole. Her smile lit up his heart in a way he had never known before. He had noticed her trim, well proportioned figure and slim legs and rested on her four inch cream sling back stilettos, he remembered the difficulties she had as he helped her climb the hill and smiled thinking how incongruous she looked here in the heart of the English countryside.
Turning to Steve, Geraldine said thoughtfully. ‘Perhaps we are in heaven. I wonder if on our way here we were involved in accidents and now we are in heaven together’. But they knew that they weren’t dreaming, that something life changing, fantastic had happened, could it be supernatural?
The ambience, their feelings towards each other on this heavenly spring day, all this happening so unexpectently made them wonder if they really were still in the world, were they?

They decided to go for a pub lunch and Steve told Geraldine to look out for a landmark on the left hand side of the road approaching the town centre called The Old House, adding that he would follow on behind. As she drove close to it Geraldine noticed that The Old House was quite a feature and quite imposing in its Jacobean style.
Over lunch Geraldine wrote the name Dina on a small card adding her phone number and handed it to Steve. When he said he would phone her that night, Geraldine remembering that she had to call at the office before collecting her children from the child minder and realised by the time she had spent some time with then fed and dispatched them into bed, it might be rather late for Steve to phone so she asked him to call her the following evening.
They left the pub and Steve sat with Geraldine in her car for a few minutes before saying good bye. Suddenly Geraldine heard a voice inside her head saying ‘you are never going to see each other again’. She began weeping, the voice had been so convincing. She told Steve what she had heard but he just laughed and holding her close to him reassured her again and again that he would be phoning her the following evening. As she drove off Geraldine didn’t turn to look at Steve, foollessly believing that is she did the words spoken by the unknown voice might come true.
Neither Steve nor Geraldine has been able to remember their respective journeys home on that day.
Geraldine waited for Steve’s call but it didn’t come. ‘Something must have happened’ she thought ‘I know he will phone tomorrow’ but no phone calls from Steve came.
Steve had tried phoning Geraldine every spare moment of the day and night. He wasn’t on the phone at home but walking to a phone box didn’t trouble him. What did trouble him was that no matter how many times he called, Geraldine’s phone was either busy or just rang and rang. ‘I know women like to talk but this is ridiculous’. He thought.
Geraldine just couldn’t understand why Steve didn’t call her. When her friends had rang she had deliberately kept the calls short in case Steve was trying to get through.
There had been quite a few phone calls for an ex boyfriend who she had allowed to use her phone number when he had written to some contacts in his work as a self employed electrian but most of the time the phone wasn’t busy at all.
One week later, after dialing Geraldine’s number for the umpteenth time Steve felt a surge of optimism as he heard the click of the receiver being picked up. A male voice said hello and Steve asked if he could speak to Dina. ‘There’s no one of that name on this number’ the voice with a broad Scottish accent said and Steve heard another click as the receiver was replaced.
Meanwhile, Geraldine upon hearing her phone ring dashed from the kitchen just in time to hear her ex-boyfriend say ‘there’s no one of that name on this number’ and hang up.
‘Who was that?’ she asked tremulously, fearing the worst. ‘Just some guy asking for Dina’ the ex boyfriend said ‘I told him there’s no one of that name here’. Geraldine thought ‘why, oh why did he have to pick this evening of all evenings to come round and pick up his phone messages?’

The following Thursday, exactly one week to the day, the ex boyfriend again called to collect his phone messages. Once again Geraldine was in the kitchen cooking dinner for the children when the phone began to ring. She couldn’t rush to the phone because she was holding a hot dish of spicy lamb casserole and was frantically trying to make space for it on the worktop when her ex boyfriend walked into the kitchen, ‘It’s the same guy again’ he said ‘ I keep telling him there’s no one called Dina on this number.’ Geraldine gave him a stony glare and through gritted teeth told him to never, never answer her phone again.
Geraldine was incredulous and deeply disappointed. ‘Two Thursday running, Steve’s phones me and the same thing happens.’

Now at that time Geraldine who had never believed in the theory of evolution did believe in God although she couldn’t even begin to picture or image what He was like.
Much, much later she learned that Jesus had said ‘No one comes to the father except by me’ and ‘if you have seen me you have seen the Father’. But in those days Geraldine knew very little about Jesus and knew nothing about having a personal relationship with Him.
Steve believed in the power of good and the power of evil, knowing them as God and satan but he knew nothing about having a personal relationship with Jesus either.
Ten days later, Steve decided to phone Geraldine’s number again remembering the sarcasm in the Scottish guys voice when he said ‘Don’t phone again sonny.’ Steve’s face was grim as he thought of this. ‘I’ll give him sonny’ he thought. He dialed her number….
Geraldine had been telling her six years old, Darren a story when the phone started ringing. She leapt across the room lifted the receiver and was just about to say hello when Darren’s voice rang out ‘Mummy, finish telling me the story’. ‘Hello” She said there was no answer. ‘Hello.’ She said again and was just about to say Steve, is that you?’ when the line went dead. Replacing the receiver she walked slowly back to the sofa.

This was the first and last time that Steve vandalized a phone box, he yanked the phone out and through it on the floor angrily telling himself that he had been a fool, that she was obviously married probably with a couple of kids.
Geraldine sat on the sofa feeling numb knowing that Steve would never phone her again. She knew that it had been him, had known it from the moment she had picked up the phone and now it was too late. The unseen person who had spoken to her in the car “you are never going to see each other again’ had been speaking the truth. She couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing him again, not being with him with not sharing their lives together.
She instinctively knew that she had to be strong for the sake of her children and her sanity and the only way she could do this was to try to forget Steve, to develop a mental block.

Six months later, Steve saw her pulling out of the M4 services in Reading. She was in the same car, a white Capri with black vinyl roof and sitting next to her was a man. ‘Probably the same Scots guy who told me not to phone again’ Steve thought, in the back of the car were three children and although Steve had no idea what he would say if she saw him, he followed her on his bike.
When the Capri reached Chiswick, Steve saw her turn off into a side road but the lights had changed and he lost track of her after that. He had been flashing her to stop, either she hadn’t noticed or decided to ignore it.

Once back in Madeley, Steve also tried to get on with his life but he was never able to forget Dina, he had other girlfriends but it was not the same, none of them meant as much to him as Dina.
Two years after that unforgettable day when he and Dina had first met, Steve began experiencing problems with his one good eye. He hadn’t mentioned to Dina that he had lost his sight in one eye when he was only two, he had forgotten and anyway it simply hadn’t seemed necessary. His vision in his one good eye was rapidly deteriaring and after a consultation with his consultant, he underwent surgery in an attempt to correct a detached retina but the surgery was unsuccessful Steve was now totally blind. His mother had lost her sight when Steve was only 8 years old and it was thought that the condition was hereditary. Initially Steve had no idea what he was going to do with his life. Having military blood in his family, he had wanted to be a soldier for as long as he but he knew that being blind in one eye he would be rejected by the army and now with the blow of being totally blind, what on earth was he supposed to do with his life? The worst thing about being blind he thought was just being stuck in one place and not being able to go out without holding onto someone’s arm. He began long cane training and although he hated being so conspicuous with a white stick, at least he was able to go out independently. Three months later, he was in the RNIB rehab centre, Torquay where he learned to type to a high standard and in general look after himself. He went from Torquay to Letsworth where he successfully completed the course in light engineering skills and was able to operate lathe mills and bench mounted industrial drills. Later he was able to find employment in this field by joining the staff at a disabled skills centre.
During these years, Steve’s feelings and emotions towards women were mixed. He hadn’t been able to forget Dina, he kept remembering the way she had looked at him with those large dark eyes, there had been no deceit in those eyes at all, that’s what he had thought at the time. His moods fluctuated, at times he knew she was the only woman for him but were also times when he almost hated her. Although he was totally blind, Steve was as good-looking as ever so he was never short of girlfriends but there was something in him now that made him distrust all women and he decided never to let a woman get under his skin again. He didn’t really find this a problem because there was so many other things in life that he was interested in, probably the most important being the meaning of life. He began the long road in his search for the truth through Darwin and his theory of evolution, philosophies, catabolism and then to the occult. Through occultism, he learned of many things which later he wished he hadn’t and one of his girlfriends became addicted to heroin through her bondness down this path. Steve began doing personal Tarot readings for friends but he did this freely without making a charge.

In the same year that Steve lost his sight, Geraldine remarried. She was very fond of Paul but love was out of the question because she had given her heart to Steve and she thought that fondness was a strong enough basis for her for marriage. It meant that her children would be in a two parent family, Paul and the children got on well together and they would also have the security of a house not a flat with garden. For the first year everything went well but soon Geraldine began to realize that Paul seemed to be endlessly criticizing the children. Her eldest children, Tracey and Steven began to resent this and soon Geraldine found herself in the unenviable position of mediator. The situation became increasingly difficult, Paul had never been married and had no experience of bringing up children and Geraldine eventually realized that the only possible solution was to buy a house in her sole name for herself and the children. She felt that by taking this strain from Paul, they could at least still be friends.
It had now been four years since she and Steve had met. She hadn’t seen him at the motorway services near Reading neither was she aware that Steve had followed her to Chiswick. She had agreed to take her ex-boyfriend to Reading where he had left his tools, the children had been with them and they had wanted her to stop at the motorway services for hotdogs. Her mind had been elsewhere that day, thinking about her publishing business which she had decided to make a limited company.
Now with things getting steadily worse in her marriage to Paul, she realized that a separation, at least until the children were grown up, might be the only solution. Her publishing business had become successful and she was offered a mortgage in her sole name on a detached four bedroom house in a highly sought after part of Eastcote, this being only a few minutes drive from her office she hadn’t really decided whether to leave Paul or not but at least another house would be a place where she and the children could live and Paul could visit whenever he wanted to.

One evening at about 6.30pm she left the office to drive to Pinner en route home. Sue, one of her reps, had not brought in her advertising copy as promised and there was a dead line the following day. It was a cold and frosty January evening and Geraldine shivered when she got in her car. She got slightly annoyed as this wasn’t the first time Sue had let her down and the detour meant that she wouldn’t be home until 7.15. Paul would already be home but the children would be famished. The road from Ruislip to Pinner displayed signs where black ice was predominant and although she kept to the speed limit, it wasn’t an easy journey on such a miserable night. As she drove, she felt saddened that her marriage to Paul had come to this, separation and she thought of the large four bedroom house she would shortly be moving into with the children. Contracts had been signed so there was no alternative but to go ahead and she wondered if she and Paul would have a chance of their marriage succeeding if they lived apart for a while. She doubted it. Her mind went back to Steve and she felt tears running down her face. “Oh God” she prayed “Please let us find each other again”. She looked ahead and saw a thirty thousand weight transit van coming towards her and in the split second that followed she saw the driver of the van and his passenger raise their arms to their faces. She tried desperately to steer out of the initial collision but the wheels just seemed to spin. Seatbelts were not compulsory at that time and the impact threw her diagonally across the car and into the window screen, the sound of shattering glass, a sound she would never forget and then sudden quiet and stillness. She was thrown back into the drivers seat still fully conscious and after a few seconds reached out to open the door she stepped out but couldn’t see a thing and everything was black, why weren’t the street lights working? She screamed ‘I can’t see’ then collapsed to the ground. She was conscious when she was taken to hospital by ambulance, sedated while hundreds, maybe thousands of tiny pieces of glass were removed from her eyes and eyebrows. Later a surgeon operated on her eyes for six hours but her sight was not restored.

Two weeks later she was at home, having discharged herself from hospital with bottles of tranquillizes and painkillers which Paul and her eldest children administered to her every four hours. Paul was unable to take any more time off work, the children had to go to school so Geraldine was on her own for most of the day. The tranquillers made everything seem unreal to Geraldine she knew she was blind but it was as if it was happening to her in a dream, a very bad dream. ‘It has to be a bad dream’ she thought, ‘I can’t possibly really be blind.’
Three weeks later Paul learned that contracts had been exchanged and Geraldine moved into the detached house with the children. The children were then aged 16, 14 and 10. Her eldest Tracey left school in order to stay home and look after her mother, all her children had been traumatized by their mother’s accident. The tranquilizers that Geraldine was still being prescribed began to get their grip on her but for two weeks Geraldine continued to go to the office by cab. Within a short space of time she began to feel redundant at the office, publishing needed sight, to proof read and edit, it seemed that publishing needed sight for everything all she could do in the office was use a Dictaphone to record phone numbers which needed to be read to her and this took so much time, it was simply not cost effective. Soon the tranquilizers made her groggy, sleepy but as time went on her medication instead of being decreased was actually increased. There were a few perfunctory visits by social workers but long cane training and rehabilitation were never suggested.
In the first four years after the accident, Paul continued to visit Geraldine but this was usually not until almost midnight when he had finished drinking after leaving his office. He would often bring her bottles of wine or cider and he and Geraldine would sit up talking and drinking until the oblivion of sleep took over. Paul finally left four and a half years after the accident, Tracey and Steven, Geraldine’s oldest son had also began drinking and using cannabis but Geraldine was not aware of this because of the effect of the tranquilizers.
When Tracey was 22, Steven 20 and Darren 16, Geraldine’s parents took them back to their home for the weekend. They also took a pile of unopened mail that they had discovered in Geraldine’s home and learned to their horror that the building society was threatening to reprocess her home, about which Geraldine remembered nothing, unless the secured loan was repaid in full. There was no other way, the house had to be sold, Tracey and Steven found a flat together and Darren who was then 16 didn’t want to move to another part of London, away from his brother and sister and friends was looked after by a school friend’s parents until he was 18. Geraldine missed her children terribly and became very depressed.

In December 1984, 11 years after her accident Geraldine moved with her parents to Bristol, she was glad to move away from the home where her teen age years had been so unhappy but Bristol was so far from her children, when would she see them again? Her new GP increased her medication and Geraldine began having fits. She was referred to a phyiciatist who decided on a one year program of withdrawal of the tranquiller and sleeping pills she was addicted to. By then her daily dosage of her medication was equivalent to 220mg of valium.
As her medication decreased by 10mg each month, gradually Geraldine became more alert but with this renewed alertness, she also became more aware of her predicament and her many loses. Through her mother making enquires with the local church, firm friendships began to grow between Geraldine and Christians who visited her at home. Geraldine wanted to know how and when they had become Christians and their answers fascinated her. They began to share scriptures with her and two of them Lyn and Pauline recorded many of these on cassette for her.
A curate from the local parish church, Alex Wellby, invited Geraldine to his home where he and his wife Jane shared the gospel. Geraldine wanted to believe, she was aware of the joy and peace in Alex and Jane and other Christian friends but the virgin birth, the resurrection, it just seemed like a fairy tale. How could she possibly believe in that? Then one evening, standing before a picture in her bedroom, a picture she couldn’t see but one that had been described to her in minute detail The Light of the World by Holman Hunt, she thought of the scripture that had inspired the artist. ‘I am the Light of the World, behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hears my voice and invites Me in, I will sup with him and he with Me.’ Revelations 3. As she stood there she remembered Alex had told her that faith was a gift from God, the supernatural gift, one that could not be purchased. She remembered what Alex had told her about repentance and the willingness to receive Jesus and to learn of this unconditional love. She slowly walked back to her bed and dropping to her knees she repented, remembering all her sins. She asked Jesus to forgive her, to make her a child of God and to come into her life. That night for the first time in years, she slept soundly and deeply for a full eight hours and woke in the morning to a new realization. Something supernatural had happened inside her whilst she slept. Overnight, her cynicism and doubt had gone and now she believed, she knew that she knew that she knew that it was all true, the virgin birth, the resurrection, these were simple truths which so many people including herself had been unable to grasp. Jesus had answered her prayers and given her the gift of faith. This gift was life changing to Geraldine as it is to every person who had been given it. She hadn’t woken to the usual panic attack which she had woken to for the last three months, part of the tranquiller withdrawal she began praying to the Lord that He would give her the peace and calm , that He would be with her as she slept and as she woke. The panic attacks became less frequent and she held on to Jesus for His strength.

By March 1986, the withdrawal program was complete and she knew that the Lord had given her this strength to endure the withdrawals without needing to go into rehab. For detox. Within a few months, she learned to cook, use a washing machine and microwave; she learned to sew and later was even able to use a sewing machine. She knew that without the Lord, she couldn’t have done it. But as the sedative effect of the medication had began to wear off she also became acutely aware of her loses, not just her sight but her children, her home, her career, her pets for which new homes had been found. She begged the Lord for His mercy on her, to lift her from her depression, to give her strength, to lead her to a man who loved her as much as she loved him. She told the Lord that she wanted her own home again near her children who were still living in London and she remembered the scripture ‘Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart’.
She was having a Braille lesson when her teacher told her about Sound Around a tape magazine for blind people. She took a copy home and after listening to it decided to record a spot on Sound Around’s pen pal section. She felt she needed to make friends with other blind people, to ask them questions about how they spent their lives. Soon she began receiving phone calls from blind men and women who had heard her request on Sound around and then one day she had a phone call from someone who gave his name as Steve. Steve told her that he lived in Shropshire and that he had been totally blind since 1975. She immediately liked him in particular liked his quiet way of talking. Soon Geraldine and Steve were talking on the phone every evening, sometimes into the early hours and Geraldine became as addicted to Steve as she had been to the tranquillizer but sometimes when they talked an image would flash into her mind, an image of herself sitting at a table in a country pub, a large window behind her and the back view of a tall man standing at the bar she saw a mirror behind the bar and every now and again their eyes would meet and she would feel embarrassed that he had caught her looking at
him. ‘How strange’ she thought ‘Why is it that this image flashes into my mind whenever Steve is talking to me on the phone?’ She had forgotten about the Steve she had met in Herefordshire, the tranquillers had done their job very effientently and in addition she had also blocked Steve from her mind or tried too. Within four months, Steve and Geraldine knew they were in love and three days before Christmas that year, Steve asked Geraldine to marry him. That night, Geraldine saw an angel in the form of a little girl walked into her bedroom and stand at the foot of her bed smiling at her. Geraldine knew that it must have been an angel, how else could she have seen her, she was totally blind.

In March the following year, Geraldine completed her guide dog training and Wenna; her beautiful golden retriever guide dog became a part of her life. Steve had just completed his training for a second guide dog, Quanta and when he moved to Bristol shortly after this, Wenner guided Geraldine to the 5th bench in the park where Steve sat with Quanta, waiting for her. Steve and Geraldine held hands as they walked through the park, listening to their guide dogs tearing about as they chased each other. Steve was wearing a short sleeved t-shirt and as Geraldine traced her fingers up and down his arm, she felt something akin to familiarity. His height, his build, his hair, his voice….all of these seemed familiar. Steve had a pretty good idea but wasn’t sure and he had to be sure before he could say anything.

They were married a few months later, their guide dogs being given the credit on local TV and the national press for bringing them together at the 5th bench in the park but Geraldine knew that it was God not their guide dogs who had brought them together and soon Steve began to share her believe.
Steve had been searching for the truth, why are we here, what is the purpose of our existence, for many years and once, before they had met and during one of their lengthily telephone conversations he had asked Geraldine if she would like a tarot card reading from him. Geraldine had told him that she was a Christian and therefore wanted nothing to do with anything occultist. That night Steve had thrown away his tarot cards and had decided that he wanted to know more about Jesus Christ and three years after their marriage, Steve had given his life to the Lord.

As time went by Steve began asking Geraldine specific questions, had she ever been to Herefordshire, had she ever owned a white Capri? Geraldine couldn’t remember ever going to Hereford but she did remember having once owned a white Capri and asked Steve why he wanted to know. “I’ll tell you one day” Steve promised “But the time is not right, yet”. Geraldine, being a woman was naturally curious but she was feeling too tired to pursue Steve’s line of questioning. She had been diagnosed with ME which doctors said was probably the result of the stress and shock of the accident and her compromised immune system caused by the tranquillers.
Two years after their marriage, Steve and Geraldine moved to Hilllingdon into a house with a very large garden, a house that was only a mile from each of her three children. The Lord had answered all her prayers, how could she ever thank Him?
One Saturday morning her youngest son Darren called round bringing with him a tray he had brought for Geraldine from a car boot sale. Darren said ‘It’s a picture of The Old House in Herefordshire’ and suddenly bells started ringing for Geraldine.
Before Darren could begin describing the picture of The Old House, Geraldine described it for him saying “I know the Old House, I remember seeing it once”. This was just the sort of moment Steve had been waiting for and he walked over to Geraldine and whispered to her “I knew it was you”. When Darren had gone Geraldine began asking Steve questions, one question after another and slowly her damaged and fragmented memory began to fit together, like a jigsaw puzzle. It all came back in a rush and she looked to where Steve was standing, her mouth open in complete amazement. She felt as if she had just stepped into the twilight zone, was this really happening?
“Is it really you?” she asked Steve, “I just can’t believe it”.
As they held each other closely, they both knew that the Lord has done this wonderful, miraculous thing; He had been working behind the scenes the whole time
“When did you first start to suspect it was me?” Geraldine asked Steve. “From the moment I first heard your voice on sound around” he mumbled into her ear, she took a step back from him “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked. Steve smiled and pulling her close to him he said “Suppose I had and it had turned out to be someone else, not you?” he paused “you’d never have let me live it down and I would have been nagged for the rest of my life”. Geraldine thought about this and sighed contently as she snuggled up to his chest, ‘Mmm’ she said thoughtfully ‘I think your right about that.’

This is the true account of how God moved in the lives of Steven and Geraldine Alford, founders and two of the trustees of The Light of the World Trust.

If you have a testimony of how the Lord has moved in you life and would like it to be considered for publication on our website, we would love to hear from you. You can email us at steve.alford@btinternet.com or write to us at The Light of the World Trust at 118 Misbourne Road, Hillingdon, Middlesex, UB10 0HP