by Amanda E. West | Mar 26, 2025 | Cover, Shelbyville
“I NEED YOU to pray that I have a brain tumor!” Linda Nichols clasped hands with her friends as they bowed their heads inside her home. After everyone left that evening, her husband, Howie, asked, “Why would you ask them to pray for such a thing?” In 2012, while...
by Amanda E. West | Mar 26, 2025 | Shelbyville, Stories
SOMEONE IS unresponsive and has quit breathing. A loved one is struggling to breathe or appears to be experiencing a heart attack. A child is choking on a grape. Any one of us could find ourselves alone in the midst of these situations and others like them. Would we...
by Amanda E. West | Mar 26, 2025 | Shelbyville, Stories
THE SKY blushed with shades of peach and coral above the metal bleachers of Shelbyville Central High School (SCHS). Wild honeysuckles sweetened the slight summer breeze. One by one, the stadium lights flickered overhead, casting a fluorescent glow over the soccer...
by Amanda E. West | Mar 26, 2025 | Shelbyville, Stories
AFTER DAYS of nonstop chemo infusions, Ezralee Swing was much too weak to open his eyes. Above the metal headboard of his hospital bed, a machine beeped. Had he finally completed his seventh day of treatment? Would the leukemia be in remission soon? His spine ached...
by Amanda E. West | Mar 3, 2025 | Shelbyville, Stories
Courtney Clardy awoke before her alarm clock. All five of her children were still sleeping, but there was another child who needed her. She quietly settled into the dining room chair and reviewed the chart she’d brought home from the Vanderbilt Urgent Care Clinic...
