An immune president

About 269 years ago, 19- yearold George Washington started his only trip to a foreign country on Sept. 28, 1751. Lawrence Washington, George’s older half brother and guardian, fell victim to tuberculosis and doctors in Virginia recommended a change of climate. Barbados had a medical tradition of treating lung infections, and Lawrence had connections to Barbadian families. So George and Lawrence were off on their 37- day voyage.

They landed in Barbados on Nov. 3, 1751. They rented a house from Captain Crofton overlooking Carlisle Bay. George wrote in his diary he was “perfectly enraptured with the beautiful prospects which every side presented to our view — the fields of cane, corn, fruit trees in a delightful green.”

While Lawrence was receiving advanced treatments from doctors, George came down with smallpox and was bedridden for about three weeks. Providentially, Washington became immune to the disease which enabled him to go unscathed when hundreds around him died from smallpox during the Revolutionary War and presidency. It is interesting to ponder what would have happened during the war and early years of our republic had the “Father of our Country” not acquired the immunity.

What painful events in our own lives turn out later to be beneficial because of the plan a wise, loving and good God has for our individual lives, country, church and world ( Matthew 6: 25- 34, Romans 8: 28)?

Unfortunately, Lawrence became progressively worse and both men returned to Virginia in January 1752 on different routes. Sadly, Lawrence died later that year.

The restored George Washington House in Barbados where the Washingtons stayed can be visited ( with proper COVID- 19 protocols).

REV. GORDON STRUNK Edgeworth