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"The WORLD TOMORROW"
A WORLDWIDE BROADCAST
HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
Proclaims to the World the
GOOD NEWS OF THE WORLD TOMORROW
BOX 111, Pasadena, California
Publishing:
The PLAIN TRUTH
a Magazine of UNDERSTANDING
San Luis Obispo, Calif.
July 17, 1958
Dear Co-Workers with Christ:
A tragic accident has struck us. Last Wednesday afternoon
I had to drop everything and race to San Luis Obispo, half way
between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
My elder son, Richard David Armstrong (Dick), and another
of God's ordained elders, up here on a baptizing tour, were in a
terrible head-on automobile wreck, a few miles from here. They
were taken to a hospital in this little city, with Dick in very
critical condition. He came as near death as could be possible and
still live. Let me say quickly he is making good progress, and we
know God will heal him--but this Sunday afternoon, four days after
the accident, he is still in critical condition. Thousands of
people are fasting and praying for his recovery, all over the
United States and in England--and I know I can be sure that you,
too, will join us, IN REAL FAITH, at once. Our other man, Alton B.
Billingsley, was not critically injured, and was able to return to
Pasadena two days later.
At first it was hard to understand how a thing like this
could happen. BUT IT WAS FOR A PURPOSE! I hope I can make it
plain to you, for this terrible accident affects every one of us--
YOU included!
I will explain, but first let me tell you what happened
and Dick's condition. Dick was sitting in the "death seat" or the
right front seat. A large Cadillac crashed into them head on,
literally shearing off the right side of our men's car a fourth of
the way across. Dick saved his life by instantly lunging over
close to the driver, Mr. Billingsley--otherwise he would have been
cut in two. He received a badly broken pelvis--his hip bone split
about an inch and a half apart; his right arm broken at the elbow
--a very bad break; his jaw badly broken, and several teeth knocked
out; his stomach and intestines knocked up thru the diaphragm
against the left lung, collapsing the lung, and shoving, his heart
over on his right side.
A third car also crashed into the Cadillac, so it was a
three-car pile-up. The cars were a total loss. My son was the
only one critically injured, though a woman passenger in another
car had both legs broken--it was reported not as seriously as it
might have been, and others of course more or less seriously