The Undeserved Miracle
as told to Franklin E. Rutledge
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
I was a bad child away from home. One day in my sixth-grade class, for no apparent reason, when the teacher was out of the classroom I took out some matches and lit them. Maybe I felt the urge to do it because I wanted and needed attention. When the teacher returned, she saw the cloud of smoke and asked who had lit a match. All the kids pointed to me and said, “He did it.” I was the one that kids shouldn’t hang around. I was the problem. In the seventh and eighth grades, the teachers would send me to the principal’s office almost every day, but I never went. I would roam the halls until I got caught or until the next class. My name became “Crazy Tone.” How I graduated from middle school, I’ll never know. The Bunker Hill Road Extension is a two-lane, east-west highway that covers the two-mile stretch between Sperry Road and Fox Road. In 2003, the posted speed limit was twenty-five miles per hour. On the eastbound side of Bunker Hill Road Extension were big trees, city fence posts, huge rocks, and a few private residences. When we landed the car hit a patch of sandy ice, Ed lost control, and we began to spin. We slid back down the hill sideways with the front of the vehicle facing the woods. Luis was in the back seat behind me, and later told me that in a panic he gripped the hand strap above the passenger window. These two doctors entered the family room where Ed’s family waited to tell them the sad news that Ed had died as a result of his injuries. My parents could hear them crying and screaming from the other room: “Ed, Ed, Ed . . . No, no, no, no.” The terrible, indescribable sounds echoed throughout the hospital corridor. The grieving of Ed’s family caused my family to upgrade their assumptions about my condition from a broken arm or leg to possible death.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
This book tells the true story about a young man that decided he was going to beat the moral system of Law. This system included parents, schools, civil authority and religion. Since he was a child, he wanted to do it his way. Feeling rejected because of his low self esteem, his mother’s drug problem and the lack of attention he received from his father, he started using drugs and drinking at a very early age.
He cared nothing for religion and pushed God aside, yet he would pray to God to ask help for his mother. This book tells of how God’s love and mercy refused to be weaker than Tony’s attempt to cast Him away. Tony learned how to hide his internal problems by amusing his friend with outward toughness. He made people laugh to keep from crying. He beat people up to hide his weakness, and he sold drugs to prove he could be somebody.
He would have ended up like most people who participate in this life style; dead or in prison. Although not his fault, he was in a serious car accident that changed the direction of his life forever. Without any will of his own to live or die, a God fearing praying woman was divinely sent to the same area where he lay in critical condition, even though the area was not anywhere near her usual route toward home. According to medical examinations/records, pinpointed operational procedures, negative medical prognosis, and eye witness accounts, Tony should be dead. No human ability or intelligence could have kept him alive.
After reading this book, you will discover that you might have received an undeserved miracle also.
About the Author
Antonio Marques Jr. (Tony) was born and raised in the city of Waterbury, CT. He is the only son of Antonio and Joanne Marques Sr. He has one sister, Melissa. He attended public schools in Waterbury, CT. He finished his GED at the Job Corp in Vermont. He earned a certificate in Auto Body and received his driving license while in the Job Corp. After moving back to Connecticut, he worked as a gas station attendant. He also worked at Meals on Wheels. Meals on Wheels was his last job before his almost fatal accident on February 6, 2003. He is a healthy paraplegic that can serve and care for himself with little or no assistance. Tony is fully active in his local church, Evangelistic Caravan Center, in Waterbury, CT. He wants to speak with the youth to advise them of the immediate danger of the drug and alcohol life style. He also wants to speak to parents, especially fathers, concerning their lack of involvement in their children lives, especially their sons.