Blue Slipper Stories
Widows’ Guild Newsletter ̵ February 2021
John became unable to work, and the couple had been waiting for months for John to start receiving disability payments. “We still had a house payment and two car payments,” Peggy said. “They [his Masonic brothers] came in and told me to show them all my bills.” For six months, John’s brothers sent the Childs a check each month. Finances became one less stress for John and Peggy, who quit her job to become a full-time caregiver.
FINDING A KINDRED SPIRIT Peggy Childs and her late husband, John, took their son to visit Cedar Point Amusement Park one summer. While waiting for their turn on the Ferris wheel, John started speaking to the man standing next to them in line. “I don’t know what they did or how they knew they were both Masons, but they just knew,” Peggy recalled. The man and his wife were from Canada and later offered to take John, Peggy and their son out for lunch. “The Masons are a good, tight-knit organization,” Peggy said. She knew this standing in line for a Ferris wheel, and she knew it many years later when her husband received a life-altering diagnosis of esophageal cancer at age 45. John was a member of Lodge No. 517, Sharpsville, a 32° Mason and a member of the Scottish Rite. “When he was diagnosed, his brothers came and helped us out,” Peggy said.
“It was all devastating,” Peggy recalled. John’s diagnosis meant driving from their home in Mercer County to Pittsburgh for surgeries and doctors’ appointments. It meant three separate rounds of chemotherapy. Toward the end of his six-year battle, it also meant honoring John’s one last wish. “He wanted to die at home,” Peggy said. “We brought in hospice and made it happen. They said he’d have a 5 - 10% chance of living for a year, and he lived for six. Doctors said whatever we were doing, we were doing it right.” John met his goal of seeing his son graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy with honors before he died. Peggy believes her husband lived longer than expected because he was surrounded by his friends, family and things he loved until the end of his life, including his fraternal brothers. “He had a lot of comradery from his involvement [in Freemasonry],” Peggy said. “He went to lodge every Wednesday night. He played cards, got involved in the community, did food drives and ate with [his brothers]. They lifted a burden from us. I can tell you I’m one of the Masons’ biggest promoters.”