There had been a period of some apathy at Tambo. Many of the students were fretting about the rule. Some of the students and the staff had begun to actively pray for a move of the Lord.
Then one of the young men had suffered a severe hit in the groin with a baseball bat during a game. It left all the students a bit subdued as there were questions as to how bad the injury was and would it have long term affects.
Only a short while later,as the day was drawing toward supper time, the students were free for a while. Some of the boys were playing soccer on the field and others of us were just standing around talking and enjoying the cooling off of the day. My memory was it was fairly warm. It was the 1st of December, and we were all looking forward to the Christmas break. The year - 1965.
One of the staff members, Mr. Wiebe needed to get something done with a car battery. He was taking it on his motor scooter, placed between his feet.
As he was preparing to leave Patty Morgenroth asked to go with him and he agreed to take her. The next thing we heard was that they had had an accident. That Mr. Wiebe had swerved to miss a drunk man weaving around on a bicycle and the weight of the battery between his feet over balanced the scooter. Don Estani came and got Mr. Dave Lotz and they went and brought them back to the school. Patty was placed on a bed in the clinic and Mr Wiebe was put in another room. Mr. Wiebe seemed to be the more serious. His wife acting also as the school nurse, was attending to him.
The high school students all gathered outside to find out how Patty was. Mr. Lotz was in with Patty and it was found that she was not breathing. Mr. Lotz began to do artificial respiration immediately.
After a time Roy Barnhart asked to help and Mr. Lotz allowed him to take over. My memory is that Gloria Stairs and I helped him. Roy breathed their breath into Patty and Glory had to gently force it out and I was there to do anything that was needed -like give drinks of water and wiping the brow of the one giving the artificial respiration.
There were several teams and we traded off through the night. We even teased as we worked, about telling Patty when this was over how these guys kissed her all night. We never stopped or considered she was in serious trouble. Mrs. Wiebe was herself occupied with her husband so it was just us students in charge of Patty.
Several of the high school boys spent the night on the radio trying to rouse someone to get a message to the mission home in Cochabamba (where Patty's parents were) to have a plane dispatched to take Patty to hospital. There were no telephones and our only outside contacts were done with Ham radios. The school was a 7 or 8 hour road trip through a rain forest and over the Andes Mountains to Cochabamba - also the closest hospital. So, we needed to have a plane come to get Patty.
Then some of the other boys began asking around and found out there was apparently a Doctor down the road toward Santa Cruz. Though they were not licensed, they took the school truck to go out and find this doctor. Unfortunately they were unable to find him.
At about 4:00 AM, in extreme exhaustion, we got the news that someone had been roused in Cochabamba and contacted New Tribes Mission headquarters. Arrangements were made for a plane to come.
The school pista at that time was VERY rough, often the pasture for cattle. So the high school boys went up to clear debris off the strip, rocks, bushes, cows -
anything that appeared to be a danger for a plane landing.
My memory was that the plane arrived around 8 in the morning, and Patty was airlifted out, now on mechanical life support.
School for the high school students was suspended for the day. We who had been up all night, fell into bed in an exhausted sleep. I remember waking up in the early afternoon to hear that the Doctors at the hospital had spoken to Mr and Mrs. Morgenroth about Patty. They said no one seemed to know how long she had not been breathing when we found her and that even if they got her heart going there was a good chance Patty' mind would be gone from lack of oxygen. I am sure the decision the Morgenroth's had to make was the hardest one of their whole life. Patty was removed from life support on December 2, 1965 allowed to go home and meet her Lord.
This was a VERY hard and sobering truth for the Tambo community. It seemed impossible that one of our number, our fellow friend and peer, was not coming back. I know for me, the reality of death was re-enforced in my own life. My brother had been killed in 1961. But as I did not see his body, a part of me tried to believe he was just living somewhere else. But with Patty I KNEW she was gone.
The other thing that over time really struck me was that you didn't have to be a grown up to do grown up things. The high school student body all worked together for Patty that night. Everyone moved up to do something to help without being asked. None of us stood in line to be assigned. We each in our own way looked for the way we could help Patty and then went out and did it. Out of the fire, the students were tested and come out refined and stronger.
Patty's death brought all of us there face to face the reality of life and death.
