By RYAN SCOTT OTTNEY
PDT Staff Writer

In her book, “7 Weeks, 7th Trouble,” writer Darlene Cartwright — a Portsmouth native, now living in Huntington, W.Va. — walks in the footsteps of Job. Like the biblical patriarch, she said she’s been tested with her own seven troubles, and she writes them, and and how she’s overcome them all not with modern medicine, but with the power of prayer and nutritional healing.

“Along with the Bible, I’ve always read the book by James Balch called ‘Prescription for Nutritional Healing,’ so I’ve always never took the drug for these diseases. I always went to his book and found what he told me to eat,” Cartwright said.

She says her first trouble was being raped by a woman when she was only 5 years old; an experience which she said led her to the church.

“They taught me how being raped by a woman does not make you gay,” Cartwright said.

Her second trouble came as an adult, when she was told she would never be able to carry a successful pregnancy. The problem was, she was already seven months pregnant at the time she received this news. Doctors rushed her into emergency surgery to save her child, who survived despite being born at a weight of only three pounds.

“They told me I never could have any after her,” she said.

She proved them all wrong, however, and had two more children. Today her children are ages 20, 19, and 18.

Her third trouble was a diagnosis of endocronitis at age 30, which led to her fourth trouble — being diagnosed with lupus. Doctors told her she would be dead by the year 2000. Still ignoring her medication and relying only on prayer and nutritional healing, she said her conditions have all vanished.

“Doctors said to me, ‘Mrs. Cartwright, God does not heal your lupus,’” she said.

Her fifth trouble was when her arms stopped moving, and doctors told her she had versitis.

“It wasn’t that I was going to die of it but it was chronic and everlasting. What it really was, was my 7th trouble; my multiple sclerosis coming at me,” she said.

Number six was excruciating pain in her side.

“The doctors told me, ‘Mrs. Cartwright, you have a very rare tumor.’ I remember those words exactly,” she said.

Again she was hospitalized and doctors told her they would make a small, 2-inch incision in her side to remove her appendix — and there was a chance she would die still. She said she couldn’t eat for four days, and lived on ice chips and an I.V. vitamin drip. When she woke up after the surgery she found more than a 2-inch scar.

“It was not a slit that was 2-inches, it was a slit 12-inches all the way across my stomach,” she said.

Doctors told her she did not have a tumor on her appendix, but she did have enlarged ovaries — the size of a grapefruit — that was overshadowing the appendix. So doctors removed her ovaries, and said doctors told her they took her appendix also, “just in case you need to come back for that.”

“Now he’s deciding he’s going to do an operation on me that I didn’t even need?” she said. “My body was setting me up for something else. I really don’t believe there was anything wrong medically that got me to this point.”

What she believes her body was setting her up for was to be her seventh trouble. In June 2004, she learned she had multiple sclerosis.

“By January 2006, I couldn’t walk, talk, or sing. They told me I’d never sing again. I couldn’t (use the restroom) ... but I still never took anything,” she said. “A doctor in Charleston told my husband that I need some medicine, but she wasn’t even an M.S. doctor. She made him put me on (the medicine) playing to him like she’s concerned about me. All she was concerned about was getting that $1,500 a month from that shot she gave me. I never would take shots. I’m not a drug addict.”

After eight months, Cartwright took herself off the medication and suffered a seizure.

A priest came from Florida to see her when she couldn’t talk or walk, and he told her she would be healed in seven weeks. True to his word, on the seventh week, on Pentecost, suddenly she seemed healed.

“I was able to do everything on the seventh week, and God told me, ‘The minute I let you see again, write the book,’ and that’s when I started typing. I couldn’t even type. I was typing with one finger,” she said.

Only 13 pages long, her book was finished in March 2006 and is now available at the Portsmouth Public Library. Cartwright said it takes only 20 minutes to read, and she’s having an expanded version printed to add hundreds of photos from her life.

She said she wrote the book to give hope to those fighting diseases.

“I want to let you know that God promises in Job 5:19 that He shall deliver thee in six trouble, yea, in seven, there shall no evil touch thee. God gave me that scripture and He put it in my heart,” she said. God gave me strength. He gave me hope. He gave me determination and willpower through his words not to accept the bad things but only look forward to the good things.”

Several weeks ago, Cartwright had a book signing at the library, and there she did something else doctors told he she’d never do again — she sang! Amazing Grace filled the halls and people followed its sound from all over the library to listen.

“The last sentence of the book says, if any of these things have happened to you, or if other things have happened, perhaps God just wants you to start numbering your seven,” she said.

------------------------------------------

By DEBORAH DANIELS
PDT Staff Writer

In October 1991, Vernon “Pete” Howell Jr.’s life changed forever.

Jogging with a friend in south Columbus, Howell was hit by a car traveling about 65 miles per hour. He was stuck in the windshield of the car and suffered traumatic brain injury.

Nearly 18 years later, he still has short-term memory loss and is unable to work, but with the book he has just written — “My Natural Recovery” — he’s sharing his story and giving all the thanks to God.

Howell was 21 years old when the accident occurred. He had graduated in June 1991 from Shawnee State University with a degree in electrical mechanical engineering technology and had moved to Columbus to attend The Ohio State University to work on his four-year engineering degree. But all that changed.

“I was in the hospital for five weeks at Grant. I was in a coma and on total life support while I was there. Then I was moved to Dodd Hall at OSU Hospital,” Howell said. He was there until Jan. 16, 1992, and then was an outpatient for almost six months.

“When I graduated from high school and was going to college, I really hadn’t learned anything about life yet, then for 10 years I was recovering,” Howell said. “My brain was bruised and I had trouble controlling my emotions. It was hard to understand, but it’s all come back now.”

Howell said the book is about his life. “It’s a self-help book about natural healing and losing weight naturally. And it’s also about giving God all the thanks.”

He said while he was recovering, his weight ballooned to 265 pounds. “I ate all the time and wasn’t able to do anything because my memory was so bad,” he said.

Howell met a trainer, who not only taught him about natural weight loss but a lot about the Bible, too.

“I wasn’t a Christian before, but I know the Lord real well now,” Howell said. “I live for the Lord and try to bring his thoughts to everyone I meet.”

Howell said he can remember everything up until the day before the accident. “Normally, people who suffer head trauma like I had suffered — they lose two years prior to the accident. I was really fortunate.”

Howell said he had no broken bones from the accident, just the traumatic head injury, and was paralyzed on his left side but eventually recovered from that. He also suffered dizzy spells, which he said now are minimal.

“It’s all because of natural products and that’s a lot of what the book is about — natural healing,” he said. That included homeopathic methods, including prayer, eating properly, herbal and vitamin supplements and exercise combined with magnetic healing products.

Howell, 37, who grew up on the West side and graduated from Portsmouth West High School, said he has had great family support. While he now is divorced, he has two identical twin daughters, 13, and a son, 9.

Howell said his book is inspired. “I sit by myself all the time and the Lord just came to me and told me to write a book and I did. I wrote the book about my life. My goal is to reach out to others and give thanks to the Lord for everything.”

He hopes to visit area churches and hospitals to share his story of natural healing and what the Lord has done for him. “I know God’s grace, “ he said.

The book is available on the Web site at www.greatqualityservices.com and soon will be available in area bookstores. More information is also available by calling Howell at (740) 935-7905.

DEBORAH DANIELS can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 234.