Or twice.
But three times.
Are you kidding? If any family has a reason to be bitter, to be mad at the world, to not believe the words printed in their tattered and worn Bibles, it’s this family.
Instead, when you step into their home on Michaels Road, days before Thanksgiving, you feel a calmness where there should be chaos.
His doctor once told him: “I never thought I’d live to see the day I’d do a surgery like this on you again. … You’re a walking miracle. You should be dead by now.”
Ted Lyons, 74, who retired from Techmetals in Dayton in 2006 after 30 years, certainly hasn’t enjoyed his Golden Years. Since his retirement, Lyons has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, esophageal cancer, had his aortic valve replaced, and just in case the family had one miracle remaining, was diagnosed with stomach cancer last year.
Stage 4 stomach cancer.
That’s time-to-write-your-will stomach cancer.
Instead, this family of faith did what it was born to do: it prayed, even harder than after its previous two other cancer diagnoses.
When Ted Lyons was diagnosed the last time, his wife of 55 years, Charlene Lyons admitted: “There was not much hope.”
But during his most recent appointment with his oncologist, the family was told the cancer was gone. There was no medical explanation, but Ted Fielding Lyons was Cancer Free.
“I thank God every day,” said his daughter, Trisha Kunz, 51, who was visiting her family from Indiana. “The doctor said, ‘You must have someone working for you. A higher power.’”
His wife added: “I just wanted to jump up and say, ‘Praise the Lord. Thank you Jesus.’ I know God can be anything. He does it in His time.”
Throughout the conversation, Ted Lyons sat almost motionless in a chair in the living room. His chin barely lifted off his chest. He has the beginnings of Parkinson’s disease and dementia. But after he heard his wife and daughter talk about the power of prayer, he couldn’t resist. He joined the impromptu living room revival.
“He always takes care of me,” Lyons said. “He loves me like I love Him.”
It would be easy to discount Lyons’ three death-defying diagnoses as the magic of medicine or just plain luck.
Some people blow out candles to make a wish, some toss a shiny penny into a fountain, others stare at the ground hoping to discover a four-leaf clover to claim their good luck, while others — especially around the Thanksgiving table — break the wishbone in hopes to finding their fortune.
Instead, the Lyons family puts all its faith in the Lord.
“We are just His hands extended,” Charlene Lyons said. “He doesn’t need us. He wants us to do His work.”
His daughter added: “Anybody who has been hit with as much as him, would just give up in life. The world needs to know there is a greater power. There still are miracles.”
So this weekend, 18 people will cram into the Lyons home for Thanksgiving. There will be family and friends, whomever wants to celebrate Ted Lyons’ recovery.
“We are thankful that we will have our dad,” Kunz said. “In ‘06, I didn’t think I’d have my dad. I really didn’t.”
Later, Lyons’ wife and daughter were asked why the man they love has been spared his life, while others have died.
“It’s not his time to go yet,” his wife said.
“He still has work to do,” his daughter said.
Maybe he will need another miracle.
Maybe the family will need another prayer answered.
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