Life History of Marcel F. Lauper
Inasmuch as I have been several months in my writing, and 'life keeps happening', there is no end to this story; however, I must here add one very significant happening under the date of April 8, 1977.
It was KNOW YOUR RELIGION SERIES evening at our Interstake Center, and it turned out to be a black Friday night. I had let Janelle and her mother out at the steps of the building, then drove across Lincoln Avenue to the upper Church parking lot. As I started to walk back, a young man with a revolver stepped from between two parked autos and robbed me at gunpoint. He was of a minority race, and in his broken language, repeated many times: "I shoot you, I shoot you, Give me all of your money, Give me all of it!" After giving him my wallet with $300, all my ID, my priceless trinkets and small pictures --within my wallet-- he still kept saying, "Give me all your money, I shoot you, I shoot you". I dug out my small coin purse with a couple extra dollars, yet he continued to hold the gun at my head and repeat; "I shoot you, I shoot you". Now I had nothing further to give, and it appeared his intentions were to finish me off then and there; so I began to plead. Those were long, long seconds that followed. (I remember them as minutes, hours, days, or years!) At the very least I can say, "It was a mighty long moment". I still, can almost feel the hot lead pierce my body, and I know not how near he came to squeezing the trigger on that snub-nosed-38. Only in the next life will I know whatever saved me; but I am so very grateful; and I do thank my Heavenly Father for His protection and the sparing of my life.