by Barbra Sue Yurachek, ~1979

Why did Timmy Montgomery have to die? He didn’t ask to be born. He wasn’t even born out of love. Sexual experimentation resulted in the boy I knew as Timmy. His teen-age mother wasn’t certain of the identity of his father. She didn’t want the responsibility of a baby son, and she signed the adoption papers without hesitation. Is that why he died? A boy born out of wedlock, unwanted in this world. Was there no place for him? Is that why Timmy died?

But I know there was a place for Timmy. He was six years old when I met him. I had just taken a new job as “lunch-lady” at the local elementary school. Tim was in first grade there. He had dark hair and black eyes that revealed his mood and his health. My new acquaintance was the second adopted son of Chuck and Therese Montgomery and he was loved dearly. The first day the boy and I met, Tim clung to his mother, shyly peeking around her skirts. I remarked how much he resembled her. Therese smiled in her quiet way and said, “Thank you.” She told me later that day that Tim was not of her blood, just of her heart. Is that why Timmy had to die? What if a parent loves a child too much? Is God a jealous God? Can he take that child away?

I am sure, however, that God understands a parent’s love for a child. He made Timmy the person he was. Everybody loved Timmy Montgomery. I saw the child everyday at school, and we became friends. Each day as he came through the lunch line he would smile and say, “Hi, Mrs. Y. See my new shirt—I can’t eat turkey. It makes me sick.—Michael took my quarter. I have to charge my lunch. Is that ok?—I saw you at church Sunday.” Timmy was a happy person. He always smiled. His best friend was Joey and Tim liked peanut butter cookies and chocolate milk. Joey thought chocolate milk was not good for Tim. Joey wondered if too much chocolate made Tim die.

Could he have lived if the Montgomerys hadn’t fallen on hard times? If Chuck hadn’t lost his job after fifteen years of service to one company and decided to follow up an offer in the state of Ohio, would Timmy Montgomery be alive today?

Timmy told me that the family was moving to Ohio over the Easter Holidays. I asked him to send me a post card. The boy said he didn’t write so well, but if they stayed he would have his mom write me a note telling about his new school.

Timmy never got to Ohio. It rained the day they left. The rain was steady and kept up mile after mile and into the night. Did the rain make Timmy Montgomery die? If the pavement hadn’t been soaked and slick, would Timmy be alive today? The big tractor-trailer pulled in front of the Montgomery van. When Therese swerved to miss the truck, the van tipped over and Tim was thrown through the window. His mom said she and her son had been discussing the boy’s school work and the possibility of his own room in a new house when the accident occurred. The rest of the family was sleeping in the back part of the van. And then, Timmy Montgomery was dead. The rain pelted in his face as he lay on the pavement, as though he were asleep. The rain didn’t wake him. Did the rain kill Timmy Montgomery?

Chuck tried hard to explain to Joey why his friend was dead. The man told the child, “I started to lift Tim into the waiting ambulance, when the doctor there said that he was sorry. He said Timmy was gone.” 

Joey asked, “Where?” 

Chuck didn’t answer, he kept trying to explain, but he couldn’t. Tim’s father fought back the tears as he looked into Joey’s questioning eyes. “Joey, no one else was hurt. I don’t know why Tim had to die.” It was then that Joey asked about the chocolate.

Was it the circumstances of his birth or the completeness of parental love that made Timmy die? What would have happened if the family hadn’t had financial difficulties, or if the rain hadn’t come that day? Joey never understood Chuck Montgomery’s explanation. Chuck has never understood the reasons why his son is dead, and those of us who knew Tim have never understood.

Timmy didn’t ask to die. He wasn’t even sick. His parents had chosen him to love, care for, and guide into manhood. God had shown them the way to a child that needed their care. Then He took that child away. The boy who had done so much to brighten the world of those who knew him was gone from that world and nobody knew why.

Maybe God grows tired of always calling the old, and so He picks a bud before it blossoms. Maybe He needs children to enhance the beauty of Heaven, but the world needs children too. God doesn’t take many, yet he took Timmy Montgomery. Did God feel the specialness of Timmy, just as we mortal men who knew the boy? Was Timmy an agent of God, used to bring us all closer to our Maker? Is that why Timmy Montgomery had to die?

The illegitimate son of an unknown father changed the lives of all those who had the privilege of knowing him—especially Therese and Chuck Montgomery. The boy will remain in the care of his Heavenly Father forever and his six year old innocence will never be tarnished by world experience. He has looked into the Face of his Father. Is that why Timmy Montgomery had to die?