Dear Hearts,
July 13th is the birthday of John Larkin Davis: husband of Beverly Diamond Davis; father of Ashley, Brianna and Caitlin; teammate and friend to many more. John is a long-time friend of Seamus the Older's and Whitey's, and as such, one of our Dear Hearts.
John is an 8th generation American whose ancestor, Jesse Larkin, fought in the Revolutionary War. Jesse's grandson, Britain Larkin, fought in the Civil War, and his brother George fought for the Confederacy in the 22nd Texas Calvary. John's father, Ben Larkin fought in Burma in the Army Engineers during WWII and worked in the coal mines of East Tennessee.
Born in Oliver Springs Tennessee, John and his family moved to Northwest Indiana after the coal mines shut down. His dad loaded them into the car and announced that when he returned from Asia after WWII, he was on a train that went thru NW Indiana and saw the steel mills. He said that if a man couldn't get a job there, he couldn't get a job anywhere. "We drove 25 hours to Gary, Indiana and went straight to the mill. He was told to report to work the next day," John recalls.
After graduation from East Gary High School, where he excelled in baseball and was voted most musical in his class, John was offered a music scholarship to Indiana University to play the trumpet. Instead he chose to major in engineering at Purdue, where his studies were interrupted for a stint with the Marine Corps. John eventually graduated with honors from the University of Houston and received a graduate degree from National-Louis University in Evanston. A fun bit of John Davis trivia: He earned his pilot's license before getting a driver's license!
From Jim:
"He has stuck up for the defenseless for as long as I've known him. Like Uncle Bob and Big Sully. In fact, he canceled his own salary for awhile to avoid laying off any of his employees. He is a great example to me and all his associates. Auntie Nan thought very highly of him.
"He is close friends with Whitey, another warrior a lot like him, and if I didn't know John so well, the fact that he and Whitey are friends would be good enough for me.
"John called me seven years ago around this time and told me an astonishing tale that happened to him. I think that John must be related to us, and I know there is some kind of mystical affinity among him and John Jeremiah "Lefty" Sullivan and Dr. John Ullmen, because John Davis called me several years ago on John Ullmen's birthday, 24 June, and told me of a dream in which Lefty inspired him to help coach the girls to a championship victory in the baseball state finals. I included this tale in John Ullmen's birthday greeting family-gram last year. In that first dream, Lefty invited John to hit, maybe symbolically telling him to keep swinging and inspire the girls, but John awoke before he could hit.
"Then, years ago, again on John Ullmen's birthday, John Davis calls me again with another tale- another dream with Lefty in it. I promised I would recount it now. This second dream is different."
Here is the dream:
In real life, John Davis has been suffering with a real bad case of arthritis in his joints, particularly the hands, for a long time. It hit him too early in life, it's genetic and very, very painful. It's so bad that he had to give up hitting flies to his team, or hitting infield.
So in this dream, John goes to a ball game and Lefty is on the mound- John describes him to a tee. Lefty had a way of holding the ball that made it seem to disappear. It's not that his hands were abnormally large, just kind of large. It was the way he held it. John nailed it, and Lefty's power-cat step and delivery, in his description of the dream.
He sits on the bench and Lefty calls from the mound, "Hey, aren't you going to hit? Get in there." John says, "Can't. My hands are too busted up and sore." Lefty says, "Don't worry about that. You just stand in there and hit--I'll take care of your hands." So John hits this time--hits batting practice with Lefty pitching--great dream.
Next day, back in waking real life, the team prevails on John to stand in against their fastest pitcher to see if the Old Coach can hit. Normally John wouldn't try it, because he would pay so dearly afterwards, but this time, the dream fresh in his mind, he steps in and hits a half a dozen in a row,over the fence, and the team is ecstatic and inspired.
He takes some Advil and waits for his punishment the next morning- no pain- no symptoms. He goes to his arthritis doc, who has treated him for years, the doc does a thorough exam, can't believe it but tells John: "Go home. You don't have arthritis anymore. It disappeared. I've never seen this in my practice of medicine. You are healed."
John tells me that he is sure Lefty intervened with God for him- that's why I think we must be related. Lefty is watching out for John. Ergo, John is a Sully, somehow.
And all this happened on two consecutive birthdays of Dr. John Ullmen, who looks like a Sully, right from Clare and Limerick. I guess Shakespeare was right: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." (Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5). John called me again three years ago, and each time, we discuss dreams."
So happy birthday, John Larkin Davis, and may you have 57 more healthy ones, by the Aunt Joannie Sullivan Law of Longevity Aspiration of 2008.
God bless us and save us and keep us from harm.
Love, Patty & Jim
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