By Ilene McConkie
The most important thing in my life is to know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, and that since it has been restored, we have had a prophet of the Lord to guide us. Also, that the power of the priesthood and the Holy Ghost are here to help us. It is so easy to look back and remember the trials and hardships and adversities we have had in our lives, but I have had many, many blessings, too. And I have had what I consider to be, two miracles in my lifetime, which I will tell you about.
We had four girls and one boy, and when our oldest daughter Shirley was two and a half years old, and the baby Dixie ten months old, they caught the whooping cough. They were very sick. It was January and it was very cold, but we took them to Roosevelt, to Dr. R. V. Larsen. It was 1944 and penicillin was just new. You had to get a shot every 3 1/2 hours. They gave baby Dixie her first shot, and we decided to stay at McConkie’s (Lyrad's parents) home, who lived where Pizza Hut is now. As evening came, she grew worse and had trouble breathing, and finally she went into convulsions. She also had a very high fever. We had made a bed for her on the dining room table, with pillows and a blanket, but when we laid her down she stopped breathing. I guess by instinct, Lyrad, her dad, gave her mouth to mouth resuscitation (it was a long time before anyone learn to such a thing). Lyrad told me to run and get the doctor. I rushed back to the hospital and grabbed a nurse and told her I had to have a doctor because my baby was dying, and that we were one half mile away. She said the doctor was in the delivery room with a woman who is having a baby and couldn't come. I told her the doctor was my friend and he would come if she would just tell him. She said he would come as soon as he could. On my way back, I kept praying that Dixie would be better, but when I walked in I could see she was worse. Her breath was just a small hiccup and her dark curly hair was soaked with perspiration. When I told Lyrad about the doctor, he said, “Ilene, you go up there and get that doctor!” When I got to the hospital again I ran to the delivery room door. Frank Walker whose wife was a nurse and Bishop Ezra Nixon were there; they told me they would go with me and the doctor would come as soon as he could. Nurse Walker listened to the baby's lungs then shook her head. Lyrad would hold her upside down and blow in her mouth and try to suck some air from her. When the doctor walked in he said, “My goodness! Lay her down on the pillow.” He listened to her lungs with his stethoscope and said, “Her lungs are completely filled up, no hope.”
My father in law, WW McConkie, who was an inactive member of the church as long as I knew him, said, “Can’t you administer to her and ask God to help?” So Frank Walker, who had been my seminary teacher, and Bishop Nixon administered to her. Lyrad asked the doctor if he could keep working out on her. In a while, I can't remember how long, I said, “Look, she is trying to suck her thumb!” Dr Larson got up and put her on the pillow, and checked her over and I'll never forget the look on his face! He was crying as we all were, and he said, “You people here have just seen a miracle!”
Dixie had pneumonia and was still very sick. They had a serum that they gave for whooping cough. It was in a small tube about the size of a pencil, one inch long. They only had two doses in Roosevelt, and none in Salt Lake City. Bishop Nixon called Oscar McConkie, father of Elder Bruce R McConkie, & a half-brother to Wilford Woodruff McConkie. Oscar McConkie had some kind of connection with the squid company in California, and within one day we had more serum in Roosevelt to give her. Sister Walker came every three and a half hours to give her the shots, it was hard for her because she was almost ready to have twins. Dixie stayed on the bed of pillows on grandma's dining room table for 4 weeks. We took turns sitting by her and watching her. Jen, my sister, helped us and Dixie was never left alone. Finally she was well. Everyone there knew that she had been healed by the Lord through the powerful priesthood blessing she received that night.
