Susan: the Story of a Miracle

Publisher Marketing: On January 26, 2012, the lives of George and Susan White were suddenly turned upside when Susan awoke with horrifying stomach pain. After being rushed to the emergency room, Susan learned that gallstones had become trapped in her bile duct. In a matter of hours, George's wife had transformed from a perfectly healthy woman to a hospital patient struggling to survive. In this memoir, George shares details from the roller-coaster journey he and his wife began that January morning. Susan contracted pancreatitis and began to suffer from serious complications that kept her in various hospitals for months to come. As George documents an experience that was both stressful and rewarding, he offers a glimpse into both the difficult times they faced during Susan's illness and the comforting moments fueled by love and generosity from friends and family. As Susan slowly began to recover, George chronicles how both he and his wife changed their outlooks on life and became more grateful for everything. "Susan: The Story of a Miracle" is an inspirational personal story of hope, faith, family, and friends as a husband and wife bravely face a health scare together and discover that miracles really do happen. Contributor Bio:  White, George George White (1764-1836) was one of the first African American deacons to be ordained by the Methodist church in the United States. Born a slave in Accomack, Virginia, White was sold when he was only eighteen months old to an owner in Esther County, Virginia. He was sold again at age six to a slaveholder in Somerset County, Maryland, and at fifteen to a family in Suffolk County, Maryland. He remained with them until his owner's death in 1790, when he was freed. White's emancipation at age twenty-six led him to turn more seriously to religion. He believed that "as God in his providence had delivered me from temporal bondage, it was my duty to look to him for deliverance from the slavery of sin" (pp. 6-7). Although White had attended the services of the Church of England in Maryland, he was converted to Methodism in New York City in 1795. Unhappy with the segregated services of the John Street Methodist Church, White began attending services with a congregation of African Americans the next year. The group formally organized as the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1799. They met in their own building but remained under the jurisdiction of a white minister and the mainstream Methodist Church. That same year, White married Mary Henery. He supported his wife and two daughters by selling fruit on the street, combining his work as an itinerant preacher with trips to the countryside to procure fresh produce. Over the next three years, his application to become a preacher was rejected five times by the Quarterly Conference of the Methodist Church, despite his success as an itinerant preacher. He finally obtained his license in January 1808. In 1815, White became just the sixth African American ordained as a deacon by the Methodist church. Whether White's first marriage ended with the death of his wife or a divorce is unknown. In any case he married his second wife, Mary Ann Forsyte, in 1817, and she bore him a son in 1820. White left to join Richard Allen's Bethel African Methodist Church in 1820 and was ordained as a deacon in 1822. White continued to preach until 1829, when he was expelled for unknown reasons from his position as an itinerant preacher. Under his leadership, entire congregations left the Methodist Church to join Allen's church. White continued working as a shoemaker, a trade he had taken up to support his second family, until his death in 1836.