Intro 3
Before i continue chronologically i will need to back track a bit.
When people ask me what caused me to wake up, i find it hard to pinpoint the exact moment.
The reason is because i’ve been waking up for quite a long time now. Obviously the lack of love in the org was a big stumbling block, along with the blatant hypocrisy, coupled with the we’re better than everybody else viewpoint. But to refine the exact moment, i need to go back to my birth.
I was born to German parents, in a small village in southern Germany, in 1953. About four years earlier my mother was converted to the Watchtower faith by an angel, according to her reminiscences. She happened to be out when an Anointed member of the Watchtower witnessed her village. Upon returning home her relatives told her an angel had visited with an amazing message. My mother wanted to hear what he had to say, so she searched the village, and found him.
Soon she was having a study, and the rest is history. My mother took to the delusion, like a duck to water. Soon she was baptized and pestered my father till he reluctantly followed suit. She would walk from the village she lived in to the neighbouring one, four kilometers away in all kinds of weather, with my five year old sister in tow. When i came along four and a half years later, my mother simply added a pram to her meeting ritual. She was completely obsessed with the Watchtower version of the “truth”, and nothing would stand in her way to actively practice her religion.
She did have to work many hours supporting the family as a telephone operator, which meant my sister had to step in and take care of me while my mother worked away. Thus a strong attachment developed between my sister and me. In fact i practically idolized her. My mother knew which buttons to press when she wanted me to behave, she always held my sister up as a shining light.
“Why can’t you be like your sister, so obedient and compliant”, she would taunt, and it always worked. Yet i loved my sister so much that i never felt jealous of her, i simply agreed in my juvenile mind that that was exactly how i should obey, just like my sister did.
It is now time to jump forward to the latter part of 2007. We no longer lived in Germany, but we were now in Australia. We had left Germany in 1956. Both my sister and i were married, her with four children, and me on to my second wife, but no children from the first marriage. Both our parents were deceased, it was just us two. And now i found out my sister was diagnosed with cancer. It was a huge shock for me. She spent many weeks in hospital, recovering from chemo, as her blood count tried desperately to recover to an acceptable level. Finally she was released from hospital, with the knowledge she was in remission. We all heaved a sigh of relief as she was now on the road to recovery. My sister and i lived about seven hours apart by car travel , and seeing as how she was improving, i stopped worrying and went on a week’s holiday out of the country with my wife.
Upon arriving back by plane, and disembarking at our international airport, i found i had a number of phone messages. While i was out of the country i could not be contacted by phone, but now here was a message from my nephew telling me my sister was back in hospital, the cancer was back.
My wife and i raced to the hospital she was in, and i spent a few hours with her, she appeared reasonably okay, but quiet. I kissed her good night, and promised to see her in the afternoon.
As i was preparing for the Sunday morning meeting, i received a phone call from my niece telling me my sister had passed during the night. As you can imagine i was devastated, and although i travelled to the hall that morning i could not go inside. Instead i walked the streets crying, not knowing what to think. The devastating news that morning had knocked me for a six; i could not understand why God could have let my beloved sister die. This moment in 2008 was the catalyst for me beginning my journey out of the Watchtower. Finally i had a reason to question, and research a religion that had been force feeding me from my earliest waking moments, no longer would i simply accept everything this organization was forcing down my throat.
To be continued.......