GRIT. FORTITUDE. DETERMINATION. These inspiring traits are portrayed in the life of David Langley of Huntsville, Texas. Let’s meet David and discover how he has met adversity head-on and prevailed.
I was born in Huntsville in the old hospital which later burned, leaving no records behind. All the records were destroyed, but fortunately, the newspaper contained an announcement that gave an interesting detail about my March 17, 1948, birth. I weighed 12 ounces at birth! And survived! From early on, God made it apparent that He wanted me here, and I am so grateful for that. In another odd twist during my infancy, my parents thought I had passed away and summoned a hearse to take me to the funeral home. Fortunately, the hearse driver noticed some movement and took me to the hospital instead. Again, God’s gracious hand was upon me.
During my early years, I contracted polio; as a result, I never crawled much at all. In fact, my method of getting around was accomplished by scooting on my bottom here and there. I only began walking at age five. By this time, my parents and grandparents doted on me, concerned about my health and well-being, as did my schoolteacher at Pine Prairie School, Mrs. Scarborough. She would allow me to sleep in class and then would help my mom out by taking me home for the weekends. This was during my first, second, and third grades of school. She always treated me in a special way. God placed caring people in my life to help me through these early years. Of course, this came with some perks, too! My two aunts, who lived on what is now Sycamore Street, would each cook a pie for me on weekends. I would have an entire chocolate pie to eat on Friday, and an entire chocolate pie to eat on Saturday. Good memories! I’ve been 6’4” since I was twelve years old. I’m sure those chocolate pies helped!
I stuttered, too. I had a bad stutter and had to have family members or friends help me communicate for the first couple of years in school. And then, about the middle of my senior year, it was as though a switch had been flipped; I lost the stutter in a moment of time and have been able to speak plainly since. The stutter returned only for one brief time, and that was recently after Covid.
When I was 13 or 14 years of age, I hauled hay and worked at a Conoco station that was in the downtown area near the current Donut Wheel location. My boss started a tire business, Sonic Tires, where I also worked. At age 26, I worked on a survey crew for Champion Paper for two years. We would go all over Texas and survey Champion land. I was transferred to the wood mill and then relocated to work at their wood mill in Cleveland, Texas. I worked there for twelve years. One day, I worked a half day in the office and the other half of the day with the men in the mill yard. I was driving a truck and got out to readjust a stack of wood that was about to topple. During this effort, I suffered a severe back injury which required major surgery and put me out of work for a year. After this time, I was sent to work at Champion’s Moscow, Texas, location. They wanted me to set up and supervise the woodyard. I knew all the systems and could run it with ease. This job also required a great amount of driving; after three months, I reinjured my back, this time more severely. An operation took place that required fusing my hip bone to my back. No pain medication was given, and for the next seven days and nights, the pain was so horrific that I prayed to die. For each of those seven days, they would pick me up out of bed to get me on my feet, but the pain was so intense it caused me to black out immediately. Finally, on the eighth day, I was able to stand and start to walk, and then was dismissed to go home on day ten. After being off work for two years, I was finally ready to re-enter the Champion workforce, but they closed the company. At that time, my doctors felt that I could not work again and sent me to the Social Security Administration office to set up disability payments. But I surprised them all by getting a desk job for the City of Huntsville, and I worked there for twenty-three years before retiring in 2007.
I had three more fusion surgeries from 2009-2010, and yes, I have continued to have pain on and off during the past thirty-four years. I’m sad to say that I’ve had three friends who have suffered through similar pain and took their own lives. God has given me the strength and outlook to push through this suffering and live for His glory.
A major blessing came my way when I met Dr. Stephen Sims. He has a pain management practice in Huntsville and has played an enormous part in easing my back pain, first through administering shots to my spine, and then by implanting a stimulator box in my back in 2021. This immediately relieved me of all the pain. I now have zero pain, a fact that I never believed would happen. I’m so thankful to him.
Additional medical issues have required Cochlear implants and a pacemaker. A malformed left clavicle necessitated moving the location of the pacemaker to the right side of my chest and rerouting all the wires, a painful procedure to be sure. I’m always grateful that my wife Dianna is there for me. I kid her about the fact that she could gather up all the remotes for these medical systems in my body and create havoc for me. I’d better be nice to her! We’ve been married for twenty-five glorious years, and she has been by my side through the best and the worst of times. There seems to be no end to the surprises my body has hidden within, including 80% more colon than normal. It is wrapped around my liver.
I also have Takotsubo syndrome, known as Broken Heart syndrome or stress cardiomyopathy. This condition results in a weakened heart during stressful situations. As Dianna was cutting my hair recently, my heart stopped, and I fell to the floor, eyes wide open. She called 9-1-1, and emergency personnel were able to revive me. At another time, when coming in from the garden to get a glass of tea, my temperature shot up to 106 degrees within a very short span of time, and my blood pressure tanked. I went sepsis and found that I had E.coli. That episode required two months of physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy, as well as time on a walker to get back to normal. Again, God has given me a fighting spirit to survive these maladies and to praise Him in the process.
We love to travel, work in the garden, and play games at night. I used to enjoy dancing, and won a dance contest in Nashville years ago, even with neuropathy in my lower legs, but no more dancing these days. We now enjoy our nine great-grandchildren and look forward with excitement to the two new ones on the way. God has blessed us so richly. My chief goal in life is to honor Him, live for Him, and teach my grandchildren about Him. Through the best and worst that life has brought our way, God has been good and is always good, no matter what life brings our way.
Postcards Magazine
936-293-1188
PO Box 690
Huntsville, TX 77342
