Arms of God

Still under the effects of heavy anesthesia after heart surgery, the occurrence of the 1858 drowning of an ancestor in the Brazos Rivers overtakes the mind of the patient. Upon awakening, the experience of the drowning, exactly one hundred and fifty years to the day in the past constantly stays with him. Soon one coincidence after another weaves the present into the past and an incident leads him on a journey back in time to Prussia and the events and circumstances that bring his ancestors to Austin County Texas in the mid 1840’s. The Journey takes the family with roots back to the 1500’s in Prussia, and a middle class existence to the extreme hardships of the sea voyage with the unbelievable crowded conditions in steerage, enduring storms, sickness and hunger to the point of starvation until finally landing in Galveston. Then they face the grueling and tiresome overland travel to their destination. With all the money spent for the sea voyage and overland travel, the family is relegated to tenant farming and slowing regains their fortunes and dignity to buy land after three years. As life unfolds, the family grows its Texas roots and expands their influence and land. Then the tragedy of the two younger brothers drowning while crossing Los Brazos de Dios (The Arms of God) river hauling cotton to Houston devastates the family and presents the necessity of the family cemetery for the first two burials. Suddenly the past and the present again collide leaving a sense that there is a force that flows through time like a river that flows continuously without end, and where we are today is only where we stepped out of the river.