Letters to Harvey by Jim Hill

The Beginnings of “Letters to Harvey”

My “Letters to Harvey began with a real letter to a real person named Harvey. But in the end, Letters to Harvey ended up as the fictional account of my conversations with my Democrat friend who had passed away many years ago. Our backgrounds could not have been more different, I a conservative Republican white-collar engineer, and he a Democrat and retired UAW auto worker. These recent Letters to Harvey open with something like this:

Dear Harvey, You wouldn’t believe what happened in the political world today.

I truly believe that if Harvey could see the mess that his political party had made of the Republic of the United States of America, he would be rolling over in his grave. Both parties actually contributed to the mess, but the Democrats have recently led the way with the leftward lurch.
With this in mind, I will provide you with some additional background about both Harvey and me, which led up to the perspective from where I am writing today.

Ambulance in Front of Harvey’s House!

It was a hot summer’s day in the suburban Detroit suburb of Berkley when I arrived home from work. As I drove up the tree-lined street of my middle-class neighborhood, I was surprised to see an ambulance in front of my house. I watched as the paramedics proceeded to roll my neighbor, Harvey, out on a stretcher and take him away to some nearby hospital. After a few minutes, I ran over and talked to his wife, who explained that Harvey had been having terrible pain in his stomach and had become very ill with a severe fever that day.

Busy Times in the Dot COM World

As I look back on my time living in suburban Detroit, I remember how many major life changes occurred as I navigated the brave new world of the dot-com era.

The dawn of the second millennium was a busy period for me as the general manager of a consulting company in Metro Detroit. After leaving the world of automotive engineering, where I had started as an engineer at Ford some fifteen years earlier, I joined my twin brother to manage his bustling software and computer services provider in mid-1998, just before the doomsday Y2K events. After enjoying the pleasures of living in downtown Royal Oak, Michigan, for a half dozen years, I experienced a Christian awakening, which led me to move a few miles away from this local entertainment capital and over to a small house next to my newly adopted church family in Berkley.

My spiritual awakening deepened my conservative Republican roots while also opening a new door for me to build relationships and share the love Jesus Christ was showing me. It was on this quiet, tree-lined street that I first met Harvey, who lived across the street from my cute, newly renovated bungalow. During this transition in my life, I first met Harvey.

Meeting Harvey: The Retired GM Factory Worker

Harvey was a lifelong Democrat party member and had recently retired from General Motors, where he worked in the factory as a dues-paying United Auto Workers union member. He was a very hard-working man who continued to work part-time in retirement, delivering packages for a company that served some of the same factories where he had worked. Harvey was a favorite among many who met him, despite being “rough around the edges.” This was so much the case that at his favorite restaurant, his regular server always greeted him with his favorite drink and entered his food order by memory when he first sat down with his wife. On a side note, I have always had an easy way of relating to people like this, so Harvey and I hit it off almost immediately.

My Letter to Harvey

Looking back to my times with Harvey, I found the first letter that I had mailed to him dated September 28, 2004. It begins as follows:

Please find attached a gift certificate to AppleBee’s as thanks for all the help that you gave me in getting and packing my boxes, helping me load the trailer, and keeping an eye on your house. I wish you all the best in everything that you do and the very best of health.

The letter I sent to Harvey provides a clue to the dramatic changes he would soon experience in his golden years.

Continuing my Letter to Harvey

My letter to Harvey continued as follows.

You are aware that the program of study that I have entered at Grace College is ministry. This represents a great turn in my life. You see, I never really was a church person, having been raised on the farm I was used to working on combines and tractors at all hours of the day and night and coming home late covered in grease. Honestly, I was kind of a partier, I drank heavily on the weekends, but thanks to the positive influence of my parents I managed to stay away from drugs. My parents attended a local church and I dragged myself along. But in my heart, I wanted nothing to do with church, or church people. The church that they attended was one that was known for a religious ritual; it was similar in many regards to the Lutheran church but was a Catholic church. They had a church service based upon a rather boring routine, but I went with them out of a sense of duty and respect – they were paying the bills after all! So, for me to enter into a program of ministry now is quite a change in my life!

These were some deep thoughts! You see, right before I moved away from my little white house in Berkeley, I clearly remember the day I came home to find an ambulance blocking the road in front of my house. They took Harvey away to the hospital and he was rushed into emergency surgery.

Big Changes for Harvey

I went to visit Harvey in the hospital, and he was very sick because of a life-threatening rupture of his colon, which resulted in sepsis and kidney failure. When I saw him, he was on a breathing tube and unable to communicate. I could, however, see that he knew who I was and that he seemed to appreciate my coming. I was fervently praying for Harvey during this whole crisis and at some point I came to the conclusion that God was going a miracle to let Harvey survive at least long enough for him to come to an understanding that he was a sinner (Romans 3:23) and that he needed God’s grace by faith in Jesus Christ to be saved from eternal death (Ephesians 2:8-9). In fact, I became certain that Harvey would indeed find faith in Jesus Christ.

I continued visiting Harvey even after I moved away and enrolled in a theological seminary in Indiana. I remember visiting him in a rehab hospital, during which Harvey slept through my entire visit. The nurse cautioned me not to wake him as he had been giving them difficulty. During that visit, I prayed over Harvey that he would trust in the Lord Jesus for the free gift of eternal life. Little did I know that God would one day answer my prayers.

Harvey’s Conversion

After I had moved away from Harvey, I kept in touch with several people in the area, including my pastor, who lived a few houses north of Harvey. During a visit to my pastor and his wife in December of 2007, I thought about Harvey and decided to call him the next day. When I called Harvey to see how he was doing, his wife answered the phone, and we spoke for a long time about how Harvey had just passed away that morning. What a coincidence, I thought, I was sleeping just a few houses away from him while he passed. She then proceeded to tell me that the night before he passed, she had called her pastor to come by, at which point Harvey asked to be baptized. Harvey expressed faith in Jesus Christ and was baptized in bed by the pastor, as that was the only method possible. I was absolutely astounded by what she told me. She also said that this was a huge deal for Harvey as his mother was Jewish.

On the day that I attended Harvey’s funeral in December of 2007, I was able to speak to his pastor, who confirmed what had happened. I explained to him that one of the reasons that Harvey came to trust in the Lord Jesus was because of the faithfulness of his church in visiting Harvey in the hospital over the several years that he fought severe health problems. I reminded him of how faithful his church was in visiting Harvey, which greatly encouraged him. As tears welled in the pastor’s eyes, I thanked him for his generous service, which had led Harvey to trust in the Lord Jesus.

Letters to Harvey

As I write letters to my friend Harvey, I think about the good times that we shared as neighbors and how Harvey came to understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I think about how, even though Harvey and I came from different political backgrounds, we would both agree that the current condition of the political sphere in America is truly awful. Onwards.

Dear Harvey, You wouldn’t believe what happened in the political world today.

Signed,

Your Friend and Brother in the Lord,

Jim Hill