Character Analysis: The Miraculous Survival Of Don

The Miraculous Survival of Don

On March 4, 1944, Grace woke up in the middle of the night. She instinctively knew that her son Don had been injured. Grace woke up Bert and together they knelt in prayer on behalfof their oldest son. It would be days until the official telegraph came from the Army telling them of Don’s injuries.
Interestingly enough, Bert and Grace received news of Don’s inury through Priesthood channels before the official government telegram arrived. Marshall Britton was a chaplain in the Army and Marshall’s wife lived in Morgan. When Marshall saw an injured boy from Devil’s Slide come into the hospital, he wrote his wife about visiting Don and kept her up to date with his condition and his progress. Mrs. Britton in turn passed the news on to the Dickson Family.

In 2011 at Don’s funeral, Evan Black, his Bishop and neurologist, spoke of exactly how remarkable Don’s survival was:
In the work that I do in dealing with brain injuries, it’s recognized that the type of injury that Don had, 55% of the people die at the time of injury, 27% of people die within the next three days, and 10% die within the next three months.
There are only 7% of people who survive an injury like that. Most of those are disabled for the remainder of their life. Don’s life in itself is a miracle. A miracle and tribute to his honoring the Priesthood.”

Second Corinthians 12:7 states, ‘And lest I should be exalted above the measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh...’ and Don dealt with that throne thoughout his life and yet continued to give in so many ways and continued to share his life with so many others. He placed himself third, placing God first, Myra second and then himself. And he was honest with himself. And while he taught his family to learn to understand and to question in the scientific method, he also taught to never
doubt.

Don is here to celebrate that release from that thorn in his flesh. More than anything, he wants his family to be with him. Each of you that are here today are here because Don has touched your life and you thereby become part of this family. He wants to be with you and wants to celebrate in that testimony that he has of the eternal nature and purpose for which we are here upon the Earth. We know that we lived with God before we came. We know that we are here for a purpose and for a testing opportunity. Don passed that test. He never became bitter and recognized as it talks about in the Doctrine and Covenants that while he had a thorn in the flesh, our Savior had a crown of thorns and our Savior gave his life so that we might return home when the time comes.

Brothers and Sisters, my challenge to you is to take that faith which Don has taught each one of us and to make a difference in your life, in your family’s life and in all that we need.