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„ surgery and realizing if
just as easily, mean death
ivery, and walking into a
tperation (expenses were
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irt
THRIFT, FULTON SAYS;
“The tags
are on us
for the length
of the loan.”
When you finance a new car, or a 1970, 71 or 72 used car
with a low-cost auto loan from Fulton Bank, we’ve got a special
bonus for you: Your tags will be free for the length of the loan *
Beginning with the 1972 registration, we will pay you for one
registration fee during each loan year, as long as the loan is
current.
Low rates, fast approvals and free tags—they're all yours at
Fulton Bank. Stop in at your nearest Fulton office for your auto
loan—and your free tags.
OFFER EXPIRES APRIL 30!
♦Not to exceed $l4 per year for passenger cars. Not to exceed $l6
per year for station wagons. Maximum three years.
SERVING LANCASTER AND DAUPHIN COUNTIES
MEMBER FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM / F.D.I.C.
to total nearly $B,OOO before it was
all over), is a trial for any man
and his wife. To the Erbs it was
one more in a long chain of
troubles that had struck their
household since their marriage.
Six years ago, the Erbs’ only
RITON
BANK
son died of muscular dystrophy,
at the age of 19, after having lived
in a wheel chair for ten years. A
few years later their youngest
daughter, now 15, developed
rheumatic fever. After
recovering from this, she fell off
Lancaster Farming. Saturday. March 4.1972—9
her bicycle and injured a knee.
Because the fever had affected
her joints, the injury did not heal
properly and the girl was on
crutches for a long while.
During this period, Mrs. Erb’s
mother was paralyzed by a
stroke, and Mrs. Erb took care of
her in her home for three years
before her death. And just days
after Erb’s heart attack last July,
while he was still a hospital
patient, his own mother died.
In spite of, or perhaps as a
result of these troubles, the Erbs
are an optimistic family unit,
showing neither self pity nor
bitterness. They live in the same
house they lived in when first
married, a 16-room farmhouse
off West Lincoln Avenue. The
house belonged to Erb’s parents,
and he grew up there, helping his
father farm, in turn farming it
himself, until he gave up farming
some years ago and leased the
land to neighbors.
Their church life centers
around the Neffsville Mennonite
, Church, and they have brought it
into their home with daily family
worship, usually in the evenings
when their girls are home.
Music is at the core of their
lives. Mrs. Erb plays both piano
and organ, and Erb plays
trumpet and trombone. An ar
dent singer, he was a member of,
the first Youth for Christ male
quartet when it was organized in
the county 25 years ago.
Spiritual awareness helped him
through his ordeal, Erb says. In
the weeks before his operation,
while at temple undergoing the
un-ending tests and
examinations, he leaned heavily
on the letters and messages from
friends encouraging him to go
through with the operation. Many
of the letters contained poems
and spiritual thoughts, and all
were comforting to him in this
nerve racking period.
A nervous man by nature, Erb
worried a lot. “But I wasn’t
afraid,” he said. “I was resigned
to it. I felt that what was to be
would be. My wife and daughters
stuck by me and that was im
portant. I found out what a good
wife I had and how much that
really means.”
On the day of his operation the
Grace Brethren Church con
ducted a 24-hour prayer chain for
him. Many persons enclosed
money in their letters to help out,
called “love offerings” from
church groups, or just “helping
hands” from individuals.
“It ah meant a lot,” Erb
remembers. “When we needed
something, it always seemed to
arrive in the mail the next day.”
When he came home, Erb was
faced with the long, often
discouraging job of recuperating.
Faced with difficulties like
swelling ankles, rash, the
discomfort of riding in a car, he
found himself wondering: “Will I
ever be the same again?”
But as he mended, and the
valve continued to function, he
could see a brighter future, and
when he passed the critical six
month period, he was reassured.
“He’s a walking example of
what they can do, a new man
today,” his wife says.
What lies ahead for E>-b looks
like recuperation—further
healing of his incision,
strengthening of his muscles
through excercise like walking,
and learning to pace himself. He
is now working half a day daily at
his sales job, his wife driving him
on his local rounds to farmers.
What does he advise other
heart cases like his own and their
families?
“Don’t put off surgery if it is
needed,” he stresses. “The
younger a man is when he has
this surgery, the better off he is.”
To those that must stand by and
watch it happen to a friend or
loved one, he says to let them
know you are behind them.