A long long time ago my Grandmother heard a knock at the door ....

by gorgia 33 Replies latest jw friends

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  gorgia

  Hi everyone; this is my first post. Yes, a long long time ago my Grandmother, freshly immigrated from post-war England to rural Australia, waiting for months for her husband to follow, with only her baby for company, heard a knock at the door. She opened it and there were two witnesses, who, after hearing how she'd just been crying in the kitchen, begging God for a friend, probably couldn't have believed their luck.

  As a 3rd gen, (haven't been a witness since my teens) and having observed all the mess the WTS has caused on both sides of my family, i can't help but wonder - what if she'd not heard the knock at the door?

  I just wanted to ask - are there posters here whose grandparents/parents 'found the truth' after the horror of the second-world-war, like my Grandmother? I remember when I was young, a Yearbook or some publication had photos of witnesses crowded at the knocked-down Berlin Wall, holding aloft WTS literature - & I remember thinking, 'That's like with my Grandmother. Get them while they're vulnerable.'

  Thanks for reading everyone.
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  Lozhasleft

  Hello Gorgia and welcome. Lovely opening post. I was the stupid one to open the door in a sense, and yes I deeply regret it. Good to have you here, I will look forward to your future posts.

  Loz x
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  brinjen

  Welcome Gorgia!

  To answer your question, yes. Former born-in myself, my grandmother heard that knock at the door under very similar circumstances. She bought the family into the cult, I was the last surviving member when I decided to exit back in the late 90's.

  I've often wondered what would have happened had she not converted to the JW's. I used to fanticise during the meetings that my family had never known the "truth". It got me through some pretty mind numbing times.
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  gorgia

  Thank you Loz & Brinjen for my first replies!!! You certainly were not stupid, Loz, if you were anything like my Grandmother - there were plenty of people from my Grandmother's generation in her hall who'd discovered 'the truth' in a post-war world. x gorgia
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  Black Sheep

  Welcome to the forum gorgia

  Mine got the knock before the war. Converted most of her kids, then spent the rest of her life peddling whatever Jehovah's promise was in the latest Watchtower.
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  gorgia

  Thank you Black Sheep.
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  designs

  Welcome Gorgia, thanks for sharing your great family history. I can relate, my maternal grandparents were the one's who met the Bible Students 1899-1900. Changed everything.
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  mrsjones5

  Yep, my grandmother on my mother's side (actually my great grandmother) got the knock around 1948 down near Sheveport, Louisiana. I guess stories of paradise sounded pretty good to a married black woman of three girls (all born out of wedlock under dubious circumstances) from the south.
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  gorgia

  designs & mrsjones5 thank you.

  My Grandfather managed to stay out until he was in his 50's - and then my aunty, who was then a genuinely distraught little girl, sobbed one day to him about how sad she was that he wouldn't be in the paradise, so he started going to the meetings.
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  designs

  gorgia- The ol emotional appeal does work, they must have loved each other very much. My grandfather became a leader in the Bible Student movement in California and later joined in with Rutherford