The life of Ben Klassen

As I am writing this, a year has gone by since my beloved wife passed away on January 24, 1992. With her passing, after more than 45 years of love, loyalty and companionship, a major chapter of my life also ended, and my will to live has faded into oblivion. Even a year or two before her death I felt that my purpose In life was nearing an end, and my interests and drive were rapidly slipping away. At 74, old age has caught up with me, and that I have now fulfilled the natural life span that Nature has allotted for me. There is a time to sow, and a time to reap; a time to be born, and a time to die, and death is a natural culmination of each living creature. I have further elucidated on this subject in Chapter 59, Life, Death and Immortality, in The White Man’s Bible, and what I am now saying is not a new attitude or philosophy on my part. We all have to die, and as the immortal Horatius at the Bridge is quoted as saying, “to every man upon this earth, death cometh, soon or late.” The only questions in which we sometimes have any choice is the when and how. I wrote that chapter more than 15 years ago, and even then, when I was in excellent health and spirits, I decided that when the time came I would make my own choice as to when and how, provided I had the chance. Nevertheless, when a loved one dies, it is a tragedy of major proportions, and there is little that can be done to assuage the grief. My wife’s problems started in the early spring of 1991, when she began having mild pains in her lower abdomen. At first we thought it was nothing more than indigestion, or an upset stomach, but as time went on and they began to get worse, we were beginning to suspect cancer as a possibility. If so, we had better get a diagnosis, and quickly. Living where we did, we had two choices, either we could go to the clinics and the hospital Toccoa, Georgia, 40 miles away, or go to Martinsville, Virginia, where Kim and Walt lived and where there were more and better medical facilities, in case it really became serious. Henrie, my wife, and Kim decided that Martinsville, although it is 280 miles away, was the better choice. For one thing, Walt, being a chiropractor, was already fairly familiar with the medical profession in the area, and secondly, should Henrie have to be hospitalized, Kim would at all times be close by to visit and supervise. On Friday, April 19, 1991, Henrie and I left for Martinsville and arrived at Kim and Walt’s house at 5:20 PM. Kim took me to Walt’s Clinic where Walt took four X-ray pictures of my spine and gave me a chiropractic treatment. Why, I don’t know. The next day Kim and I took Henrie to Stuart, about 30 miles away, where she underwent clinical diagnosis by several doctors. These preliminary indications were not too clear but they were rather disturbing. Back from Stuart, that evening we all went to see the musical production of “Hello, Dolly!”, at Carlyle School, a private school which all three of our grandchildren were attending. Scott was even one of the players in the production. Two days later, Monday, April 22, 1991, Kim and I again took Henrie to Stuart, where Dr. Rick Cole examined her colon with a stereoscopic light, and again, the diagnosis was not too promising. She then went to the hospital clinic, had an injection of barium salts and and X-rays taken of her colon. This was done by a Dr. Khan, and the results
examined by Dr. Rick Cole again. The diagnosis this time: no tumor, no operation needed! We were all elated! We decided to stay another day. Kim and Henrie went to a rummage sale and came back with a bundle of clothes. Henrie decided to stay for a few more days anyway, while I decided to go back home and take care of church business. I called Henrie the next night. She wasn’t feeling too sharp. On Wednesday, April 24 I called Henrie again at Kim and Walt’s. She said she was not feeling too well, However, when I talked to her again two days later, she said that she planned on coming home on Saturday and that they would meet me at Hickory. Kim then called me back a little later that same day and said the latest reports from the lab tests looked bad, that Henrie should have more tests, and that she would be staying another week. Talking to Kim on May 1, Henrie’s situation did not seem to be improving. Further tests showed she had a large tumor in her lower colon, and an operation seemed imminent. I decided to leave whatever I was doing and go back to Martinsville. When I got there, Henrie was already in the hospital, and after dinner Kim and I went to see her. She informed us that she was scheduled for an operation at 8 o’clock the next morning, May 10, 1991. Nevertheless, she seemed in very good spirits, considering what lay ahead. I got up at 6 AM and an hour later Kim and I drove to the Martinsville Memorial Hospital. We went to Henries room and visited with her for about ten minutes. Then the nurse came in and prepared Henrie to be wheeled into the operating room. Dr. Fox was the operating physician, and the operation started at the scheduled time. While we were waiting for the outcome, Kim and I went to the hospital cafeteria and had breakfast, awaiting the results with much apprehension. Then we went to the O.R. room and waited. After two hours, Dr. Fox came back to inform us that the tumor had also spread to the bladder and there were complications. He was calling in Dr. Andy Gherkin, a specialist in urology to assist. Kim and I talked to him about that phase of the operation. At 12 noon, after four hours, the operation was finished, and Dr. Fox said Henrie was doing very well. She was then taken to the Intensive Care clinic, still unconscious. Kim and I went to Shoneys to get a bite to eat. When we go back at about 2 PM to see Henrie, she was still pretty groggy from all the sedatives and the whole ordeal. After about an hour, Kim and I left and did some shopping. I bought Henrie a big Mothers Day card, which I planned to give her on Sunday, May 12. I got up at 7:30 on Sunday, but everyone else in the Moore household was still asleep. As usual under such conditions, I drove over to Shoneys, read the Sunday paper and had breakfast by myself. I stopped by at the hospital at about 10 AM to try to see Henrie, but she was being given a bath at the time so I decided to come back later. When I got back to the house, all the Moores had left for their church. At about 11 AM I drove to the hospital to see Henrie. After about 15 minutes, Kim and Walt, Maika, (a German student staying with the Moores) and the boys all arrived also. I gave her the big Mothers Day card, which she greatly appreciated.
Maika and the boys cooked up a big BBQ chicken dinner. Then after dinner we all went back to see Henrie again. Kim showed Henrie all the cards the kids at Sunday school had made for her, and all the cards she and Walt and the boys had for her. This greatly helped to raise her spirits. At about 10 PM that night, I received a call from my sister Katie from Niagara Falls, informing me that her daughter Anita had given birth to a baby boy. I brought Katie up to date on Henries operation. Meanwhile, Henrie was recovering slowly. On Monday, May 13, I had breakfast by myself at Shoney’s, then at 9:30 I went to the hospital to see Henrie again. While there they were taking X-rays of her again (with a portable unit) and I talked to Dr. Fox once more, who was visiting her at the time. She seemed to be making good progress. I decided I might as well go back home again for a few days and then return. I left at about 10:30, stopped at the Red Lobster in Hickory for lunch and was back at my own home at 4:30. I picked up the Franklin Press, which had a news item in it about our church. I called Henrie and Kim just about every day to find out how Henrie was doing. On Saturday, May 18, reports from Dr. Fox, and from Kim and Henrie, seemed favorable and they thought Henrie could leave the hospital on Monday. She did leave the hospital on Tuesday and wanted to come back home to North Carolina. I was back in Martinsville the next day, arriving at Kim and Walt’s at 6 PM Wednesday. After a few days, I went back home again, but Henrie stayed on at the Moores. On Thursday, June 6, I was back there again to see Henrie. She was feeling somewhat better, and we even went out shopping together. On Sunday, we had breakfast together at Shoney’s, and then I left to go back home again. The next Sunday, a week later, the reports were negative again, and I immediately got into my newly purchased Buick and rushed back to Martinsville again. By the next day Henrie was back in the hospital again for further tests. They gave her another barium salts injection and took further X-rays. It seems she had a partial blockage in her intestinal tract. The next day, according to Dr. Mlot, the blockage had opened up, and Henrie was feeling better. The next morning, Wednesday, June 19, I was packed to go back home again. I went to see Henrie at 8:30 and things seemed worse again and Henrie was throwing up. That same night I got a call from Kim. She was at Brevard, and on her way to coming over to my house. She wanted to get some business information and left at 10 AM, while I left for Toccoa. Henries condition seemed to go up and down and by June 29, she felt well enough to check out of the hospital again. In the meantime, here at the church we had some excitement. On July 2 we received a large box in the post office, with no return address. I suspected mischief that it might be a mail bomb, and called the Sheriff’s department. Deputies Andy Shields and Jim Ker came out, and they came to the same conclusion as I did, and were afraid to open the box. The next day they told me that a North Carolina state bomb expert from Raleigh
was being flown out. By 8 PM a whole crowd of about 15 people had gathered back of the church (about 100 yards) surveilling the mysterious box. The deputies were there, Sheriff Homer Holbrook was there, the fire department and crew had thelr truck out there, and finally the bomb expert arrived. I stood around until about 10 PM, then went to the house and went to bed. The next morning I checked with Ron McVan, and he told me that they were all preoccupied with the box until about midnight. Finally the bomb expert opened the box while everybody stood back, and found it was full of shredded papers, (including some of our own Racial Loyalty) and hostile letters. The officials took the material with them for further analysis. That same day at 2 PM I called Henrie. She said she wanted to come home the next day. At 11:30 AM next morning I again took off for Martinsville, arriving there at 5:30. That evening I took Kim, Walt, Henrie and the grandchildren out to dinner (it was seafood night) at the Dutch Inn. The next morning, Saturday, July 6, Henrie and I had breakfast at Shoney’s and left for home. The Moore family went to the lake about 40 miles away for a day of boating. Henrie and I arrived home at about 3:30. She fixed dinner for the two of us – beef stew, defrosted out of the freezer. Henries troubles did not get worse, nor did they get any better. We drove to the grocery store and a few other nearby places, otherwise she took it easy. Two months later on September 22, Henrie felt well enough that we took a two day trip to Pidgeon Forge, Tennessee, going over the hump of the Smoky Mountains National Park, without her feeling too much discomfort. In the meantime, Henrie and Kim had been talking about taking one last grand trip to Henries beloved West Colorado, Utah, and some of the other beautiful places and scenery that Henrie loved so much. Henrie and I left for Kim and Walt’s on Saturday, September 28. We stayed with the Moore family for two days, enjoying ourselves, then I left for home on Monday. Kim and Henrie took off from the Greensboro Airport at 8:30 the next morning, October 1, for points west, arriving at Las Vegas, Nevada at noon. They immediately rented a car and were off and running. They took the scenic drive through the Virgin River Gorge to St. George, Utah, one of the most costly roads ever built, Kim told me. Here Henrie went to see a certain Dr. Graff, with whom she had made a previous appointment. He used some very unorthodox procedures, but Henrie had been to him before and had a lot of confidence in him that he could do her some good. Later they all had dinner at a very colorful Mexican Restaurant, nestled on a high bluff overlooking the city. They spent the next day visiting museums in St. George, visiting the all-white Mormon Temple, and both of them saw Dr. Graff again. From there on out they covered a tremendous amount of scenic territory, and Kim wrote
an 18 page summary of what they considered as one of the most colorful and enjoyable trips of their life. I don’t have the space here to recapitulate all, but will only try to mention some of the highlights they visited. From St. George they drove north on I-15, turned east on I-70 and landed late at night at Green River, Utah. They visited the John Wesley Powell Museum and saw the films on his exploratory trips of the Green and Colorado Rivers. From there they went to Moab, Utah, took a motel, and explored the colorful rock erosions in the area, drove to Dead Horse Point and viewed the winding river and landscape far below. They went back into town and rented a red jeep and explored Arches National Park. Big steak dinner that night, then next morning, into the jeep again, to the edge of the Colorado River, and Indian petroglyphs. they returned the jeep, and that next night went on a Sound and Light trip on a raft down the Colorado. This will give you some idea of their exploratory curiosity, but due to limited space, I will merely mention the numerous places they also visited and explored. Ouray, Colorado, staying at the Swiss Chalet, where Henrie and I stayed some 20 years earlier when we first discovered the beautiful and unique setting of this little Colorado town. To Telluride; Kim made an appointment to meet an old friend at Larimer Square in Denver; on to Salida, then Buena Vista, Colorado; on over the mountains and finally into Denver, where they took a suite at the exclusive Embassy Suite (last room left, no extra charge) where Kim met and had dinner with the friend she had called a few days before. By now it was time to head back to Las Vegas and return the rental. They took I-70 through Vail, and beautiful Glenwood Canyon. They took an 80 mile detour to visit Henrie’s childhood home in Craig, Colorado, which Henrie viewed with much nostalgia and tears in her eyes. They stopped in Vernal Falls, Utah, for the night. The next day, somehow they got on the wrong road and ended up in Provo. While there they visited Brigham Young University and the student union buildings. They finally got to Las Vegas and had breakfast in the Excaliber Hotel, the largest in Vegas. Then back on the plane and back to Martinsville. Kim said that Henrie felt well and vibrant throughout the trip until that very last day at Vegas, when she took a turn for the worse. But, although she realized this would be her last such trip, it was most exhilarating for both her and Kim, and until the day of her death three months later, she continued to talk frequently about the wonderful time and memorable experiences they both shared on this last trip West. * * * * * Henrie and Kim returned to Martinsville on Friday, October 11, via the Greensboro Airport. Henrie wanted to come back to her own home. I left the next day and arrived at Kim and Walt’s at 7:20 PM and we stayed over Sunday. Then on Monday Henrie and I left. On Wednesday, October 16, I called Kim and told her Henrie was in considerable pain. Kim said she would leave everything and pick up Henrie the next day. She arrived at 4:35 and the two of them took off for Martinsville at 6 PM. The next day I called Kim and
she told me that they had been to see Dr. Mlot who had taken some blood samples for analysis to be sent to the lab, and that Henrie was scheduled for a CAT-scan on Friday. I called Henrie again the next day, and we talked for about 20 minutes. She said she felt drowsy and was taking painkiller pills to subdue the pain. Next day she called me at about noon and sounded fairly cheerful and said she was feeling somewhat better. On Friday, October 25, Henrie received results of the blood tests and the CAT-scan, and the news was not good. Evidently cancer was present on the right side of her abdomen. I left for Martinsville on Sunday. On Monday Henrie and I went back home to North Carolina. Henries condition did not seem to improve, but she thought she felt well enough to go to Kim and Walt’s for Thanksgiving. This we did, where we all had a big turkey dinner. The next day the Moores were all leaving for Myrtle Beach and Henrie and I left for home at 10 AM, just before their leaving. With Christmas coming up, Kim wondered if we would be joining them as usual. Henrie was hesitant, but finally decided she just wasn’t up to making the trip again and we declined. However, she cooked a good cornish hen dinner for the two of us. It was our last Christmas together. On December 30, Kim, Amy, and the boys arrived at our house and we spent New Years together. They stayed for five days. Henries condition was declining rapidly, and we knew the end was not far off. On Saturday, January 11, Kim arrived to stay with us for the duration. Henrie was mostly bedridden, and to make her last days more cheerful, Kim decorated Henries bedroom with all the old photographs and paintings that Henrie loved. On Thursday, January 16, Mary Wimmer, a dear old friend of Henrie’s, arrived to visit with her, which cheered her up immensely. She stayed for several days, recalling old times, much to Henries delight. She left on January 20. At 8:30 in the morning of January 24, 1992, Henrie died. When I saw she had stopped breathing, it seemed she had such a serene and peaceful look on her face, I almost envied her. And why not? She had lived her life in dignity and died the same way. All her troubles, pain and anguish were over and gone. We called the Bryant Funeral Mortuary in Franklin, where Kim and I had already made previous arrangements. Two of their attendants arrived at 1 PM and as they slowly wheeled her through the living room, Kim and I embraced each other and cried. We knew we would never see her again. They took her first to Dr. Charles Pennington, in Diliard, to confirm her death, then in accordance with Henries wishes, she was cremated at the Daniel-Mize Mortuary in Clayton. She had asked us to scatter her ashes In the scenic beauty of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, a wish Kim and I carried out some months later. A Memorial Service was held in Bassett, Virginia, (near Martinsville) on Saturday, February 1. Dr. Walter S. Moore, her son-in-law, gave the eulogy.
Kim then gave an emotional but cheerful speech about all the wonderful times they had had together, how much they loved each other and what a wonderful mother Henrie had been. Mary Wimmer, too, gave a talk about what a wonderful friend Henrie had been since the 25 years they had known each other, going back to Lighthouse Point, Florida, where they first met. In between the speeches Mrs. Dianne Moran played the organ, accompanying soloist Susan Stone in two beautiful renditions of Henries choice. They were Whispering Hope and Springtime in the Rockies.