In recent days, Redemption Press published a book I've been working on over the last year. Based on over 30 interviews with family members, I wove together their memories and stories to create a biography of my Grand-Dad. The book can be ordered from the publisher's website here or from Amazon here. In this blog post, I include below my Introduction in order to give people an idea of why I wrote it.
INTRODUCTION
The first and last time my daughter met my Grand-Dad was in a hospital room. She was sixteen months old and jet lagged. On February 1, 2018, our plane crossed the Atlantic Ocean and landed in Atlanta. Eleven days later, we boarded another plane bound for Muskegon, Michigan. Since he’d spent months in and out of the hospital, my wife and I knew this could be our only chance for Grand-Dad to meet Sara. We were right.
As my aunt Veronica and Grandmama ushered us into the hospital room, Grand-Dad was just emerging from surgery. His eyes should have remained distant. Instead they lit up with recognition as Grandmama told him he had visitors. For the next few hours, I introduced Grand-Dad to my daughter, Sara, and he astonished us all by asking questions about our life as missionaries in Romania. But that was not the most extraordinary thing I remember.
News in the form of a phone call told us that one of my many cousins was hurt and needed prayer. This was nothing new to me, considering I have twenty-five first cousins. What was extraordinary was that Grand-Dad held out his hands for us to hold. Then he prayed. His deep, soothing, “Our heavenly Father . . .” is something I will always hear when I think of my Grand-Dad. From his hospital bed, Grand-Dad prayed. We all verbalized our amens. My daughter silently watched him. Less than two months later, Grand-Dad was gone.
My voice quivered as I asked Grandmama if I might deliver his memorial sermon, which I did on April 9, 2018. That manuscript is offered as an epilogue at the end of this biography. It was one of the quickest sermons I’ve ever prepared, if not the quickest, probably because I have reams of mental images of Grand-Dad. At least, I thought I did.
During the week of Valentine’s Day 2020, precisely two years after we visited my Grand-Dad in the hospital, Aunt Veronica interviewed Grandmama for a church event concerning her love story with Grand-Dad. Thankfully, this interview was recorded on Facebook. From my balcony in Bucharest, Romania, I listened as Grandmama shared. I am not ashamed to say I wept. I wept for the legacy of Christ-honoring compassion left for us and then came to a realization. Someone needs to write this down.
My dad, whom I call by his nickname “Buzzie” in subsequent pages, taught me to use my gifts, accept challenges as they come, and see things through to the end. I suspect he learned that from his dad. So I accepted my own challenge. If someone needs to write this story, maybe it should be me. I then proposed the idea to my parents, who I’m pretty sure thought I was a bit off my rocker, and then to Grandmama, who graciously agreed to work with me.
This biography is composed of content taken from multiple interviews of family members. Academically speaking, the book could be called an exercise in oral history, since I am mostly weaving together spoken memories into a cohesive story. The rest of the details can be found, amazingly, in the public domain of the internet. When I needed to check facts such as street locations, I simply googled them from my desk in Bucharest. For example, I watched a YouTube video of a car ride through Norwayne, Michigan, where Grand-Dad grew up.
For giving me a chance to interview and gather their memories, which I recorded and transcribed, I’d like to thank my Grand-Dad’s sisters, Clara and Janet; Grand-Dad’s nephew, Chuck; Grandmama Gayle’s brothers, Em and Rich; my grandparents’ children, Calvin (Buzzie), Daran, Valorie, Veronica, and Brooks; my brother, Conner; and my cousins, Brock, April, Amara, Grace, and Brayden. For about six months, nearly every Thursday morning, which is evening in Romania, Grandmama and I spent hours over the phone interviewing, checking, and rechecking each chapter as I drafted them. I cannot thank her enough for her courage to allow this story to be printed, her love for all who of us whose names dot these pages, and her prayers for God to be honored through this book’s success. Thank you to my sister Kendall and Aunt Kelly for their thorough and thoughtful edits. And thanks goes to my lovely wife for valiantly keeping our two active, little children at bay during these times and for always putting up with my writing projects.
Working primarily from memory presents the danger that negative details will be either left out or altered. As much as possible, I have tried to present Grand-Dad as he was, faults and all, through the eyes of his loved ones. I hope that becomes clear from the start. My prayer from the outset is that the writing of Grand-Dad’s story results in three things. First, I pray that family members like myself who only knew pieces of this story will be proud of the legacy of faith Grand-Dad has left us. Second, I pray that the Christian reader’s faith is strengthened. Third, I pray that readers who are not Christians find themselves drawing nearer to the God of Buzz Armstrong as they read of his transformation.
Grand-Dad’s story is uniquely familiar. It is unique because he lived a unique life. It is familiar because all of us who have encountered Jesus and responded in faith to his call experience transformation. In this sense, Grand-Dad’s story echoes in the story of every Christian believer. May it also be the case for readers of this biography.
Soli Deo gloria—To God alone be the glory,
Cameron D. Armstrong
Bucharest, Romania
December 2020
