Voices In My Head Podcast Episode 336: An Extraordinary True Story with Missy Sipes

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Welcome to Voices in My Head, the official podcast of me, Rick Lee James. I'm a recording artist, a singer, a songwriter, an author, a worship leader, and an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene. The Voices in My Head podcast is where I discuss music, movies, books, pop culture, theology, and more with friends, colleagues, and sometimes strangers.

Sometimes just by myself.

Now make sure to let me know what you think of today's episode by leaving me a review on iTunes or by tweeting at me @RickLeeJames on Twitter. And please join my mailing list at RickLeeJames.com where you can receive an email every time a new episode is released. By the way, in case you're interested in a daily dose of kindness and encouragement beyond this podcast, I also run the Twitter account @MrRogersSay. Where I post daily quotes from Fred Rogers, one of the voices in my head. Well, I guess that's it for the intro, so sit back, relax, and listen to the latest episode of Voices in My Head.

Welcome back to Voices in My Head. As always, I'm your host, Rick Lee James, and I'm very glad that you're here with us again this week for what I think, without looking at my notes, is our 336th episode.

I Think.

And my guest today is, is really one of my longtime friends. We work together here at, uh, in Springfield, Ohio at Home Road Church of the Nazarene, maybe better known as First Church of the Nazarene, but we're trying to change that. The reason I have Missy on today is not just that she is a long-timer like I am here, and it's the church on staff, but, and not just because she is a great children's pastor, but she has a really great story that is very unique that has to do with her family. And I thought it would be a good opportunity today since we just had a few moments here at the church. It ended up nobody else was here today, and that never happens. And we're in a room where phones are not ringing. And so I'm gonna have Missy tell a little bit of a story as I kind of ask her a few questions and walk through. So Missy Sipes, welcome to Voices in My Head.

Thank you. I've never done this.

Oh well. This is— many people have said that over the years, so, uh, but I'm glad to have you. I can't believe you haven't been on before, actually, with all the episodes I've done.

Oh, well, thank you for asking.

All right, so the reason that I'm having you on today is your grandparents have had an extraordinary story. They both passed away a few years ago, right? I'm very sorry for that. I know you were very close, but you also have to understand, listeners, Missy is closer to her family than most people are to anyone else on the planet. Like, it seems like every time I see her, her phone's in her hand and she's talking to a mother or her father or a brother or a sister or, you know, somebody that's just like— every day you talk to your family pretty much every day, right?

Yeah.

Not just your husband and kids, but like everybody in the family, right?

Right.

Okay, that's, that's wild to me. Um, you actually use your phone for talking.

I do.

Yeah. Yeah, talking on the phone's like the last thing I do with my phone, right? For sure. Yeah. This is the times we live in. Well, I wanted you to share your story. This past week you spoke here at our church on Sunday morning, and you did a really great sermon. And I don't want you necessarily to give a sermon today, right? I do want to kind of walk you through a little bit of the story that you shared. Maybe you can walk me through it. That might be an easier thing. You didn't really tell our congregation that this was your family until the story was over.

Right.

I kind of knew it was coming, and I thought, I wonder if anybody's gonna, you know, like catch on.

Yeah.

Before the end. But you use names, and the way that you told the story, it almost sounded like this could be like a movie of the week or something.

Yeah.

I mean, honestly, the things that happened in your family are just so extraordinary. So tell us first a little bit about your grandmother and her background before you get into her meeting your grandfather or anything. Just tell us a little bit about who she was.

Okay, her name was Alice and she lived in Detroit with her mom and her dad and she had two younger brothers and she had an older sister. And that was just pretty much her life in Detroit and her parents did have some struggles. They struggled with alcoholism and I do know from like journals and stuff that she was pretty close to her father and she may have been close to her mother too, but I'm not sure about that, but I do know that she was really close to her dad. And her mother died when Alice was 10 as a result of her alcoholism. She just, it was just something that she really struggled with, and unfortunately at a young age Alice became in charge of raising her two younger brothers and kind of taking care of the household. And she was 10 when that happened.

So 10, 10 years old and and lost her mother. So this would be your, your great-grandmother. Okay, your great-grandmother. Now you said alcohol was a problem for her. Was it also a problem for your great-grandfather?

It was as well. Yeah, it seemed to be a pattern that they both really struggled with.

So yeah, so here's a 10-year-old in a situation that would be difficult for any 10-year-old without the death.

Right.

So you've got an alcohol situation that is really kind of controlling the family in a lot of ways.

Right.

And now I'm sure your great-grandfather must have been incredibly distraught at the passing.

Right.

I'm sure that didn't help with the drinking.

Yeah.

Right. Well, it was also during the Great Depression as well. So like during that time. So just that added pressure.

So she, and how many, was it with two other brothers you said?

She had an older sister and then she had two younger brothers. Okay. And the one brother actually had a lot of seizures. Seizures. I think he also had polio as well. He had just a lot of physical and mental disabilities, and he behaved and had the development of like a small child. So he was very kind though. He loved Detroit Tigers and baseball.

And so, so at 10 years old, I can't even fathom a 10-year-old taking care of any family right now, but right, having to kind of do that. I'm sure she did the cooking, the cleaning, and she went to school.

She did. She did have some education, yeah.

Okay. So let's fast forward just a little bit. This was her living situation up until what, when she graduated high school? Is this sort of—

I'm not actually sure that she did graduate high school. I would have to go back and look that up, but she—

But she met your grandfather around age 16. 16.

Uh-huh. Yep, and he would have been 19.

Okay, would have been very common to to have gotten married at those ages back then. So your grandfather came along and he was sort of sent from heaven.

Yeah.

I'm not saying he was an angel, but he was very good to her.

Yeah, yes, very much.

Very good to her. And I think it sounds like she really needed that.

Yeah, yeah.

So they ended up getting married. I'm gonna fast forward through a little bit of the story.

Yeah.

But one of the things that was so touching, which is extraordinary, but it's not the extraordinary part of the story. Your great-grandmother was very concerned about what was going to happen to her father.

Right.

And the brothers who really were dependent on her.

Right.

So she asked your great-grandfather, who she married, what?

She— yeah, my grandmother just couldn't stand to leave them on their own, and so she asked my grandpa if her dad and her two brothers could move in with them as well.

Which is what everybody wants when they are newly married.

Right, at 16, right?

And he said yes, and they did.

He did, yeah, they all stayed together.

So to fast forward just a little bit more, World War II is going on, and your grandfather— not great-grandfather anymore, but your grandfather who married your grandmother Was he drafted or did he enlist?

He was drafted.

Okay.

Yeah, because he was actually a little bit older. He was towards his late 20s, 30s, which was considered older back then.

So I'm just thinking of the weight that is already upon your grandmother and on your grandfather.

Yes.

But it's in different ways. Your grandfather went to war. She's left at home again, still caring for her immediate family that she had.

Right.

And then were there children on the way before?

Yes, before he left for Germany, they had a daughter and a son as well. Yeah, so they have now 4 that they're responsible for.

So 4 kids in addition.

Yeah.

Your grandfather goes to Germany and what happens to him?

He was sent to Germany and my grandmother received a telegram that he was killed in action. And so I don't— I think she was just trying to figure out like what to do because obviously there would have been like no body. So like, do you do memorial service? Like, I just think all those kind of emotions were going through her head trying to figure out what to do. And it was a few weeks later that she received another telegram that he had not been killed, but he had actually been a prisoner of war during that period of time. So Yeah, there were a lot of emotions, I'm sure, going on.

So that's the twist in the story, is not just that she already went through this grief, was going through this grief thinking she had lost her husband, right? Um, and was going about life with taking care of all these people, right? At what age approximately would you say she is now?

Um, she would have been in her early 20s, early 20s at this point.

So they've been married a bit, uh, at that time. That's a huge weight. I can't imagine the finding out. But there's an extraordinary way, not just that he ended up being alive, right, but the way she found out. Yeah, he was alive. It wasn't, it wasn't just a telegram, was it? Because I thought you had said something about she kind of found out from this picture in the paper, right?

Well, she received that he had died, received another telegram saying that he was a prisoner of war war, but I don't think it specifically said, you know, like where he was at or the condition that he was in. So, um, so she knew that he actually was alive, but she didn't know like when he was coming home or what that looked like or if he was even safe. Um, but on, I think it was the Detroit Free Press newspaper, she opened it up and in the paper was a picture and he was in it. And, um, when there were troops coming into the camp, he somehow got out at the same time. Like they were escaping and trying to let them out.

So it wasn't just that he got like let go, he actually escaped.

No, he escaped is what we were told. So when they were able to escape, when they were trying to get back to whatever location they were supposed to be going to, they ran into German soldiers and the German soldiers surrendered. And so then—

Surrendered to them as escapees?

Yes, yes, yeah.

Did they have weapons or anything? I mean, how did this all, like, that's the amazing part of the book.

I don't know, I don't know if the people that helped my grandfather and the other POWs get out, if they had weapons and supplies with them, but the Germans that they ran into, they surrendered. And so those soldiers, along with my grandfather, were taking them back to where they were supposed to go, and somebody snapped a picture, and then it ended up on the paper.

So yeah, so it's crazy.

That's—

it's wild. It's wild that he escaped, and then they overtook soldiers.

Yeah.

And then got a picture snapped, and then that's the picture that wound up in the newspaper in Detroit. Then, then that was really the— other than the telegram, that was the first, like, with her eyes evidence.

Yes.

That her husband was—

yeah, because comparatively, like, with the telegram and when the event happened of when the picture was taken, she knew like he must have gotten out, like he's got to be coming home at some point.

Yeah.

So yeah, crazy.

Well, the most amazing part of the story, one of the most amazing parts, I mean, they get home and it was a great story if it, if it ended there, but there was something that you had said Sunday morning. Um, your grandparents left a great legacy and this is sort of the point of the podcast today. You were talking about what an impact they had, specifically your grandmother, on her faith, not losing faith during that time, right? Always seeming to be a person who had a very Christ-like attitude in the midst of all of that, which would crush most of us, and I'm sure it did her too, but there was real evidence of Christ in her life, right? And the most telling evidence of that, you actually said it on Sunday morning when you were up behind the pulpit giving this story, and you said, how many of you in the family that very day, this past Sunday in church, uh, were preaching that day who were like children or grandchildren of her at the same time?

Uh, there are 5 of us currently.

Yeah, so 5 of you ministering, like, and it just kind of struck me when you said it Sunday Morna, you're telling the story of the legacy of this lady. And we never know what kind of legacy we might have for Christ. But that was, to me, the most profound moment of the message. I think I had at least heard some of that story before, but it didn't dawn on me like, wow, 5 of you right now, like this very day, all of you are in different parts of the country delivering the gospel.

Right.

That's a pretty powerful—

yeah, yeah.

So yeah, um, I just thought it was a good story. Yeah, I wanted to share it with those who listen to this show, um, and just as an encouragement to them, uh, to, to do your best to continue faithfully serving. Um, sometimes it's not in the glamour, right? And it's not like being in big places where people see you. Sometimes it's the faithfulness of a a 16-year-old who's willing to step out and take care of a father and two brothers and then two children as she gets older, and then thinking a husband died and still being faithful and still going on. It's an extraordinary thing. So I want to thank you for sharing that story today. This was kind of a cool opportunity just to get to sit down and retell that. I know a lot of people from our congregation have been asking, "Can I get a copy of that sermon?" And I thought, "Well, I need to share this on a broader place than just our congregation." So, well, as I say to my guests every week, although I don't use their name, I'm gonna say, "Missy Sipes, thank you for being one of the voices in my head this week." By the way, we're walking down the hall after the interview that you just heard. I wanted to let everybody know that's listening, if you'd like to see a picture of that we were talking about that ended up, we think, in the Detroit Free Press of Missy's grandfather with the soldiers that they captured and the first visual as evidence that he was still alive. We're going to post that on the podcast page at voicesinmyheadpodcast.com. So thanks.

Thank you for joining me here this week on Voices in My Head. I hope you'll visit me on my website at rickleejames.com. Where you can find out more about me, get my music on vinyl and CD, follow my blog, and even schedule me for your concert or speaking engagement. Better yet, even a book signing in your neighborhood. You can find all that and more at RickLeeJames.com. Also, it would mean a great deal to me if you could write a review of this podcast on iTunes. The more positive reviews that we receive, the more visible this podcast will be online. And now for the benediction: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. God bless you, and thank you for listening to Voices in My Head.