News Articles

Book celebrates beauty emerging from tragedy
By TIFFANY ST. MARTIN
Ralph Walls was driving his late wife, Jeanie, to a Pennsylvania hospital when she pointed up at the mountainside and exclaimed, "Look! Look at the flowers in the crags!"
As Walls looked in that direction, clouds parted and the sun shone down on flowers growing in the rocks. The immense pain felt by Jeanie, who had ovarian cancer, subsided, and Walls decided then and there to write a book about her.
That was 1997. Ten years later, Walls, who lives in The Country Club, is an author, with his book available at local shops and on the Internet. "Flowers in the Crags" was published in April.
It is indeed about Jeanie and about Walls' current wife, Betty, and her first husband, Gid Miller, a TWA pilot who was on that airline's Flight 800 when it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on July 17, 1996.
Miller and his crew were on the plane to Paris, headed there to fly a TWA airliner back to the States.
Walls remembers Jeanie calling him to the TV as soon as he got home that night. He stayed up all night, switching from one network to the next, and something on one channel made him stop. Recovery workers were pulling debris from the water, and Walls' eyes fell upon a day planner he was certain belonged to Miller.
The couples had been friends for several years, even attending the same church for a time. Six months after Miller's death, Jeanie told Walls, "When I'm gone, please consider Betty."
Walls brushed it off, telling his wife she wasn't going anywhere. She died six months after that conversation and a year to the day after her death, Betty called Walls and the two made plans to have dinner.
It was the second anniversary of the crash of TWA Flight 800 when they met for a meal while Betty was in Pennsylvania (she and Miller moved to Sarasota in 1986). Despite the date, both had a wonderful time.
Walls left with butterflies in his stomach, and Betty said she felt something, too. She asked him to escort her to a wedding the following weekend and, Walls said, "We knew then."
He remained in Pennsylvania when she came back to Sarasota, and the two carried on a long-distance relationship for six months. After they married Jan. 2, 1999, Walls moved here to be with his new bride.
The book tells the couple's story in detail, also covering Jeanie's love of life and Miller's love of flying. Walls interviewed family and friends for "Flowers in the Crags," including Betty several times, though she admits to being more of a private person than her husband.
It's a tearjerker of a tale, with messages about things like abuse and grief, Walls said. He went through a box of Kleenex while writing it and has cried again each time he has read it.
The writing process was therapeutic, and Walls - a retired contractor who barely passed high school English - wrote it to give hope to readers going through similar life events.
"I want people to think, 'If you died tomorrow, do you know where you would go?' he said.
Taken from the LAKEWOOD RANCH HERALD an edition of the Bradenton Herald 08/03/07

FOWERS IN THE CRAGS
BY MALLORY SZYMANSKI
STAFF WRITER
08/27/2007

One early April day, Ralph Walls was driving his critically ill wife, Jeanie, along Route 54 near Riverside en route to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville when all of a sudden, she screamed.
He clenched the steering wheel, fearing for Jeanie’s life, too scared to look over at her. He never could have expected what he did see when he took a glance.
Jeanie’s hand outstretched, her finger pointing, she screamed, “Look! Look at the flowers in the crags!”
Amidst the jagged mountain rock was a soft burst of color.
“The clouds parted, a beam of sun came out, and this patch of flowers that had snow around them came out, and it was beautiful. Instantly, her pain was gone. She just saw those flowers,” Ralph said.
Jeanie was always like that.
“That described her life completely. She just always saw the good in anything,” Ralph said.
He looked over at his wife of 29 years in the passenger seat and told her he would someday write a book about her, and when he did, its title would bear the name “Flowers in the Crags.”
She didn’t believe him then, but he kept his word. The book was published at the end of April. But it wasn’t only about Jeanie.
“Flowers in the Crags” is about past friendships, including one with a TWA pilot who lost his life in the July 17, 1996, crash of Flight 800. The book is about life after loss and, as its title would foretell, it’s about finding those flowers when things get rocky.
The Walls grew up in New Jersey and began dating when Jeanie was only 14 years old. The couple wed in August of 1968.
They moved to Ringtown in 1989 and later moved to the Mahantongo Valley, in a home between Pitman and Klingerstown.
While in Pennsylvania, Jeanie complained of back pain and went in to see a chiropractor in Bloomsburg. When the doctor put his stethoscope on Jeanie’s back, he noticed her lungs were filled with fluid, so Ralph rushed her to the hospital.
“The doctor came out and said, ‘Your wife is in the fourth and final stage of cancer. It’s everywhere,’” Ralph said.
Jeanie was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and given between six months and six weeks to live. But she never knew her prognosis.
“I never told her that. I kept it a secret for about three years,” Ralph said.
Throughout Jeanie’s illness, the Walls stayed in touch with two friends from back home, Gid and Betty Miller, who had since moved to Florida.
“We had met them in 1980 when we went to a church in New Jersey. That’s where our friendship started,” Ralph said.
Gid grew up an Amish boy in Lancaster County, and his dream had always been to fly an airplane.
“He fulfilled his dream ... He became a world-class pilot, a captain, without any college or military training,” Ralph said.
Gid became a pilot with TWA. One day in 1996, Betty called to tell Ralph and Jeanie that she and Gid would be late for their usual visit because he had switched flights and would be deadheading over to Paris, and would fly back to the states. He was scheduled to return July 19.
But the return didn’t happen. On July 17, 1996, Gid Miller, 58, died in the TWA Flight 800 crash.
“When I came home that night , my wife said, “Get in here! Get in here! A plane on its way to Paris just went down,’” Ralph said.
Ralph stayed up all night watching the news, worried about the welfare of his friend.
“He (Gid) had one of these day planners that he always carried in his pocket and it was huge, it was like a wallet and a day planner all in one. I was flicking from channel to channel and the one news channel zoomed in and there was this day planner with all this stuff sticking out of it and I knew. I just knew it was his plane,” Ralph said.
Ralph remembers it as a “very emotional” experience, but he keeps fond memories of Gid with him today.
“He was such a gifted story teller, and could always make people laugh and hold their attention,” Ralph said.
After Gid’s death, Jeanie’s condition grew progressively worse. One night, she called Ralph over and asked him to consider pursuing Betty Miller once she was gone.
“I knew right then and there that my wife had come to the conclusion that she was going to die,” Ralph said, choked up.
Taken aback by her proposal, Ralph quickly comforted his wife in her time of need.
“I made the statement, ‘Don’t be silly, you’re not going anywhere,’” Ralph said.
Jeanie died six months later, more than five years after she was given between six weeks and six months to live.
“She loved life. She loved life more than anybody I knew. She found beauty in every single thing. To watch her suffer and die a slow death like that was a very terrifying experience,” Ralph said, this time crying.
Jeanie left Ralph with more than fond memories of their life together, though. She left him a suggestion that would eventually blossom into romance.
“Betty, I always thought, seemed more refined. She didn’t need to be hanging around a construction guy,” Ralph said of Betty Miller.
A year after Jeanie’s death, Betty was in from Florida for a reunion, and she called Ralph.
“We were just getting together as friends,” Ralph said.
Or so they thought. The two caught up on old times and, while doing so, they hit it off.
“My stomach was in knots, I was like a teenage boy with butterflies. I felt really weird. I didn’t sleep all night, I tossed and turned,” Ralph said.
And even though he was excited, he also felt guilty.
“I just didn’t know what to think of it because I’d only been with one woman in my life and I was having these feelings for a new woman. My wife had only been gone a year and a month or so,” Ralph said.
Betty asked him to escort her to a wedding the following week. And, not long after, they were the ones walking down the aisle.
Betty Miller and Ralph Walls were married Jan. 2, 1999.
Betty, now 68, and Ralph, now 61, are retired and reside in Bradenton, Fla.
“We’re into all kinds of volunteer work. We volunteer our services wherever we can,” Ralph said.
The Walls have gone on mission trips to Haiti and to Hungary, and Ralph serves on the board of Mennonite Disaster Service.
But he has found a relatively new favorite activity - writing. He’s in the middle of writing two books. One is a prequel to “Flowers in the Crags.”
His book has been purchased by 510 of his friends, and he’s gotten good reviews.
One friend “read the book and called me on the phone and he cried for a half an hour, he couldn’t even talk,” Ralph said.
The author hopes the book will help people who are going through similar situations in their lives.
“I’ve woven my life story through the whole book because I want people to know there is hope,” Ralph Walls said.
To learn more about the author or to purchase “Flowers in the Crags,” go to http://flowersinthecrags.com.
©The News Item 2007

Taken from the News Item 08/27/07

Out of tragedy, he grew 'Flowers'
By Michael Yoder Intelligencer Journal Staff
Section: B
Page: B1
Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, PA)
Published: May 2, 2007
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Ralph Walls knows firsthand what it's like to deal with tragedy. The Sarasota, Fla., resident lost his first wife to ovarian cancer and one of his good friends in the TWA Flight 800 tragedy in 1996. He also has dealt with the guilt of being mentally abusive to loved ones.
But Walls has turned both his grief and guilt into an accomplishment, writing a book, "Flowers in the Crags," about the entangled lives of three people originally from Lancaster County.
Walls started writing "Flowers" on Valentine's Day in 2006 as a tribute to his first wife, Jean Rohrer; his friend, Gideon Miller, who died on Flight 800; and Miller's widow, Betty Herr, who is now married to Walls.
"Writing was the last thing on Earth I thought I would do," Walls said.
The story centers on Walls' relationship with "Gid," who was a pilot for TWA and formerly part of the Amish church in Bird-in-Hand, and Miller's wife, Betty.
Walls said he got to know the couple when he was living in New Jersey with his wife and attending the Baptisttown Baptist Church in 1980.
The two couples formed a bond and would meet at least once a year, even after they moved to different parts of the country.
Then, on July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800 blew up shortly after takeoff from New York, killing all 230 passengers onboard, one of whom was Miller.
Walls said he saw the pictures on the news.
"My heart sunk, and I knew it was (Gid)," Walls said.
Later, he heard from Betty, who confirmed that Gid was on the plane.
Walls and his wife continued to stay in contact with Betty, who was living in Florida. At the same time, Walls' wife was dealing with ovarian cancer.
Doctors had given Jean, who was born in New Danville, no more than six months to live. She ended up surviving for more than five years.
As she was dying, Walls said his wife made a powerful request - that he should look up Betty and try to start a relationship with her.
Walls said he was shocked, but he eventually followed through.
"What do you say to your wife when she makes a request like that while she's still alive?" Walls said.
A year after Jean died, Walls was contacted by Betty, and they made arrangements to meet.
In a short time, the long-time friends were dating, and a romance was kindled. They married a few years ago and live in Florida.
Walls said he felt he needed to write down his emotions about Betty when they were dating, and he did - filling four journals.
He used those journals, along with research and interviews he did about Miller's life in Lancaster County, to craft "Flowers in the Crags."
Walls said he wrote the book as a tool about abuse, the grieving process with a loss of life and ways to battle cancer. He said the book also is an invitation and a prayer.
"I didn't think I could cry that hard when I wrote," Walls said. "It's like a fairy-tale story with a lot of crying."
"Flowers in the Crags" is published by Xulon Press and can be purchased at www.xulonpress.com.

To order a reprint of this document go to lancasteronline.com/reprint