ARTICLES

A Mother Tested by the Lord

RUTH BELTRAN'S WITNESS

The following was written by Cathy Norman, a housewife in Fremont, who volunteers in several Christian ministries, including a ministry of prayer and support to women in crisis pregnancies. During this work, Cathy met a Spanish-speaking mother who was pregnant and in need of help. The young mother and her family were about to be evicted for lack of rent money. They had no food, and they needed clothes for their two little girls, ages three and four. Cathy belongs to a Catholic prayer group in Fremont and she asked any of the members who could speak Spanish to help her work with the young Spanish-speaking mother. She was helped by Ruth Beltran, and through their work together Cathy became acquainted with Ruth's moving witness about the trials and blessings from the Lord that she has experienced during her life. Ruth's life illustrates that when God blesses us, those blessings help us to reach out in love to others.

In 1937, during the Great Depression, Ruth's mother, who had come with her husband to the United States from Mexico 20 years before, was pregnant with their tenth child, Ruth. Both parents were farm workers and faced a constant struggle to make ends meet. Ruth's mother and father were also very religious. Daily mass and the rosary were always a part of their life. In Mexico, Ruth's mother had studied music. She played seven instruments, and even performed with a professional orchestra in Oakland. In fact, she was a member of the orchestra at the 1937 World's Fair in San Francisco. Ruth's father scraped and saved to provide for his family.

Two months into her pregnancy with Ruth, her mother signed up for prenatal care. A woman at the health clinic handed her some papers written in English that she was unable to read. "What are these for?" she asked. "They are an authorization for you to have an abortion," the woman responded. "You're too old to have any more children." She was 42 years old. (Less than two years later she would give birth to Ruth's younger brother.) The doctor who would have performed the abortion, if she had consented, worked at a hospital in Oakland.

Ruth's mother left the clinic, determined to have her baby. The same doctor who counseled her to abort delivered the baby girl. He told Ruth's mother that she had ruined his day by making him interrupt his golf game to deliver the baby. As Ruth says, "One man's blessing is another man's curse." Ruth remembers her mother telling her, in her later years, what a great comfort Ruth had been to her.

Ruth was the tenth of a total of eleven children. Almost from the beginning of her life, she was afflicted with severe health problems. By the time she was two years old, she was diagnosed with eczema and asthma. At age two and a half, she was sent to a hospital for children with asthma and polio called the Sunshine Camp for Children, where she remained for three years. A few years after she was released from the hospital, she again became extremely ill. But the most severe crisis occurred at age 11, on the day before Thanksgiving, when she was admitted to another hospital, where she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and put in isolation for three months. Her home for the next seven years was a tuberculosis sanitarium. In those days, there was no known cure, and many people died of the disease. Ruth was told that her case was particularly virulent. She was not expected to live. Between the ages of 11 and 17 she had weekly treatments at the hospital. Despite the suffering she established many wonderful friendships with patients at the hospital. Many of them were beautiful, holy people. Ruth lost all of them except one--a little girl whose parents had just come from Canton, China. Although she was Presbyterian, she used to recite the rosary with Ruth each day. (Ruth still keeps in touch with this dear friend.)

During her stay at the tuberculosis sanitarium, Ruth's only visitors were her parents, who would make a long four hour trip every Sunday to check on her. Because the disease was so easily transmitted, she had no other visits from friends or family outside. Losing her friends in death was a hard trial for Ruth, but the feelings of isolation, rejection and fear were also overwhelming. The rigor of the treatments and severe boredom, combined with her other difficulties were more than she could bear. But she retained her daily devotions to Jesus and His Blessed Mother, and one day in the depths of her distress she cried out to them: "Heal me, or take me away from this earth; I can no longer live this way." Within six weeks, her disease had vanished. The doctors were completely mystified, but not Ruth. So it was that at age 17, despite the earlier grave prognosis, that she left the tuberculosis sanitarium Since that time, Ruth has considered the Blessed Mother and her son Jesus to be her best friends.

The celebration of Ruth's homecoming was mixed with the pain of the fear she encountered in her family and friends, who didn't trust that she was completely well. A year after her homecoming, in the early spring of 1955, Ruth met a 22-year-old, tall, kind-hearted, gentle-spirited man. His name was Gilbert Beltran. After a courtship of seven months, he asked her to marry him, and the joy of his love seemed to drown out all the pain of her earlier trials and sufferings. Ruth made an appointment for them with her doctor for the required blood tests. The doctor met first with Gil and shared with him the details of Ruth' s medical history. He recommended that they not have any children, believing that it would endanger her life. Then the doctor talked to Ruth. He told her that her health was too fragile and would suffer further from the burden of bearing children. "I strongly recommend that you undergo a sterilization before your marriage."

When they left the doctor's office, Gil asked Ruth what she thought about the doctor's advice, and expressed his doubts about the wisdom of having children. After hearing about the meeting with the doctor, Gil's mother said that she could not help out much with any problems if they decided to go ahead and have children. Ruth then made an appointment with her parish priest and told him all about her past history--the trials and the miracle, and her engagement and the doctor's recommendation that she be sterilized. She asked the priest if a sterilization would be permissible. He gently pointed out that there was a contradiction in her request. "You have just told me about the wonderful miracle that God performed for you, and now you are giving in to fear." He told her that she needed to talk to God about her need and let Him speak to her heart. "I cannot give you my consent for a sterilization."

Ruth went before the Blessed Sacrament and asked God to help her know His will. She thought about how she had gone to church every day, and she knew the Church's teaching that sterilization was gravely wrong. Then she knew in her heart that she could not turn from God's will just for the sake of a husband.

Afterwards, Gil asked her if she had made a decision. "Yes," she said. "I'm going to wait on the Lord." She told him that if he didn't want to trust God with her, then she would wait for a husband who would trust the Lord with their lives. Gil was greatly disappointed, but due to his fear he decided to break off the engagement. After this difficult decision, Ruth never expected to hear from Gil again. But four months later, during Lent, he called her back. He told her that he had decided to put his trust in God, and he asked her to marry him.

Ruth and Gil were married on December 8, 1956, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. It is ordinarily not a day reserved for marriages, but that is the date the priest set, the date he said was the only one available. As the wedding day neared, he noticed his error, and told Ruth she could not be married on that date. Ruth reminded him that he had insisted on that date and that the invitations had already been sent out. The wedding date remained as planned.

Now the Lord has given Ruth and Gil 40 years of marriage, which they celebrated recently with a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. The doctor's prognosis and the fears of many people proved to be ill-founded. Gil and Ruth have 14 children, four of whom are adopted. Ruth is healthier than many women. She hardly ever gets sick, and she has never been in the hospital again, except to give birth to her children.

But the journey has had its difficulties and detours. Their large family has often been the butt of many jokes. After their fifth child, Ruth and Gil considered not having any more children. She began to use the birth control pill, but after two months, at Gil's initiative, they reconsidered their choice and decided to stop. Shortly after this Ruth became pregnant with their sixth child. Unfortunately, there were complications during birth and the little baby boy died. This event had a profound effect on both Gil and Ruth. Gil realized that he had, in a sense, taken for granted the lives of their children. He began to see how precious a gift life is. For Ruth, the experience was also painful, but through this she drew closer to the Lord and began to sense his presence in her life in new ways.

Another trial occurred during one of Ruth's last pregnancies. Just before this pregnancy, Ruth was diagnosed with a tumor a little smaller than a grapefruit in her uterus. She was scheduled for a hysterectomy and exploratory surgery because of the size of the tumor. Due to the proposed procedure, Ruth knew she would need help caring for all the children after the surgery. However, her oldest daughter was in college at the time and couldn't take off immediately from her studies to watch Ruth's toddlers. Ruth decided to wait for her daughter' s semester to end before having surgery. In the meantime, she discovered that she was pregnant again. Before she told anyone about the pregnancy, she went on a women's retreat. At the end of the retreat there was a healing service. A woman next to Ruth sensed a word in her heart from the Holy Spirit for Ruth: "I have permitted this child in your womb, and through this child I will bless you." (Ruth had still told no one she was pregnant.) That night, Ruth knew she had been healed. After the tumor had been diagnosed, getting into bed each night had been painful. But that night she was free of pain.

Ruth had not yet told her doctor about the pregnancy when she went in for the final exam scheduled before her surgery. The doctor examined her twice. He could not believe what he found. The tumor was gone, and instead there was a baby developing in her womb! During this pregnancy, Ruth and Gil received many signs of God's favor, as had been foretold on the retreat. Someone left an envelope with $400 on their front door; this helped them to pay for their hospital bill and for Ruth's prenatal vitamins. A nutritionist heard about Ruth' s pregnancy and called to give her some valuable advice that enabled her to nurse the baby after the birth. Finally, since many of their children had suffered from milk allergies and ear infections, Ruth and Gil prayed that the new baby would be protected from these problems. When little Miriam was born--the easiest of Ruth's deliveries--she was healthy and didn't have an ear infection until she was three years old.

During their 40 years of marriage, Gil and Ruth have seen God provide for their family in many ways. They never have seemed to lack anything they truly needed. During times of financial hardship what little money they did have seemed to stretch. Their children have been a blessing and a joy to them. Their faithfulness to God over the years has given them a quiet confidence in God's provision for them no matter what the challenge they may face. Ruth has developed the habit of praying the rosary during different household tasks--painting walls, making curtains, etc. In assessing a painting job, she might say to herself, "This will take about three rosaries." She believes in the great importance of Christians uniting their wills with God's will--that if we get an inspiration, we should sit down and ask God about it before running off to accomplish it on our own. One of her favorite adages is, "Success outside the home is no excuse for failure in the home."

Today, Ruth and Gil are in good health. They celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary last year, with all their children and grandchildren present. At the moment their children still outnumber the grandchildren--14 to 12. But they expect that will change in the near future.

Ruth wants to dedicate this testimony about her life to all the beautiful mothers who strive to do God's will in today's modern world. Her primary goal in allowing her story to be written is that God may be given the credit and the glory. He is the creator and redeemer of the universe, the lover and sustainer of all families and children. *

Reprinted with permission from The California Mission, June 1997. For subscription information, call (408) 371-2112.

TOP