The man who would be called "the father of our country" was born February 22, 1732 to Gus and Mary Washington. Gus was a widower with three children. When Mary Ball Washington was pregnant with George, a violent summer storm hit their home. It was a Sunday afternoon, and they had guests for dinner after church. A lightning bolt hit their house, traveling down the chimney. It fused the knife and fork together a young guest was eating with. She died instantly. Mary Washington was only a few feet away. She never seemed to be the same after that event.
Mary rarely traveled any further than church after that. She discouraged her sons from taking any risks. It created a number of conflicts in their home. George could hardly wait to be old enough to leave and be on his own. When he was eleven word came his father had died. He had been on a trip to England.
He survived several illnesses that could have taken his life. He had mumps, smallpox, four events of malaria, TB, typhoid fever, staph infection, and two bouts with influenza. He took so much quinine for malaria that he had a hearing loss and was nearly deaf when he left the presidency. It was felt that these skirmishes with death and dying made him a man of patience, self-control, courage and determination. War came almost as a relief to him. He could then SEE his enemy,
George Washington stood tall, literally. He was six feet four, slightly over 200 pounds. He was an excellent horseman and good athlete. He had a commanding presence. He married Martha Dandridge Custis Washington on Twelfth Night 1759. They had forty years together, an unusually long time in that day. She was a young widow with children from her marriage with Daniel Custis. She stood less than five feet tall! Her former husband had left her as the largest woman landowner in Virginia. George was an experienced soldier by this time.
The stories of this man's life and legends are many. The fact is that he was the man for that critical time in our nation's birth. His dominating mother never really forgave him for leaving "the crown", and leading in a battle for independence. She was a loyalist to England to the day she died. She never attended an inauguration of her son as president. Adversity and pain made George Washington a stronger person. It was as if that lightning bolt that struck before his birth gave him acknowledgment of the tasks laid out for his future. I breathe a prayer of thanks this morning that George Washington was there when our nation needed him for birthing.
