Once Glynn returned home via ambulance from UAMS Little Rock, Bertie and Glynn were thrilled that he was able to return to church for the first time after being hospitalized. They used a Hoyer Hydraulic Lift to place Glynn in the wheelchair, then his son, Derian, physically picked him up and placed him in and out of the car. Bertie calls this photo, “The first of many firsts.”

Life can certainly be full of twists and turns. And sometimes those occurrences happen in the blink of an eye, and life is never the same. Joseph “Glynn” Fuller experienced not one, but two, life-altering events that changed the course of his life but didn’t shake his faith.

Glynn was born in Texarkana, Texas, in 1953 and grew up in the Sunset area and attended Dunbar, later graduating from Texas High School in 1972. “He was a rather quiet individual who loved math,” his wife, Bertie, shared. “Glynn was athletic and played basketball and football – but he excelled in football. He later practiced Taekwondo in his early twenties and thirties and earned a Black Belt. I’m certain these activities strengthened his body for what was to come.”

Glynn’s son, Joseph G. Fuller, Jr., visits his dad at UAMS Little Rock. While Glynn was in the hospital, the children often took turns relieving Bertie so she could come home for a day or two to take care of their home and recharge a bit.

The Fullers’ story is definitely one of faith and family. Glynn had married young and was raising his four children – two sons and two daughters – alone. Bertie had also married young and had two children – two daughters – whom she was also raising alone. They met in 1991 at Sunset Church of God in Christ. “I had recently relocated from Miami, Florida, to the Texarkana area due to a job promotion at the Federal Prison System as supervisor of education,” Bertie recalled. “We both loved church and actually met through our children who all attended the Liberty-Eylau Independent School District. I later learned that Glynn’s oldest son, Joseph Fuller, Jr., who had met me through my oldest daughter, Tiffany Curry Kennedy, had told his dad that he met this beautiful woman that he should meet. We lived in the Prison Reservation houses, and he had driven by several times trying to catch a glimpse of me, but he never did until I decided to attend their church as we were the same denomination.” The rest is history – the Fullers were married seven months later on September 28, 1991.

“We were pretty much like the Brady Bunch,” Bertie reminisced. “We loved to travel to my hometown of Chicago and Memphis, Tennessee. Glynn loved driving his 1958 Chevrolet through town as it was his first car purchased when he was 14 years of age. It’s still his pride and joy!”

While working as a machinist at Smith-Blair, which was known as Rockwell at the time, Glynn acquired the nickname “Duck.” An accident at work was the first life-changing event he experienced. He fell 20 feet from a crane, straddled a beam and got up and walked away. No ambulance was called and, miraculously, he continued his shift. He continued to work for a month or more until he was unable to continue and went to a doctor. Glynn was diagnosed with internal bleeding and a back injury. This injury led to high blood pressure caused by trauma which forced him to retire early due to being disabled.

*Glynn and Bertie surrounded by their children: Derian Fuller, LaCrystal Cheathem, Joseph Fuller, Jr., and Tiffany Kennedy*

Bertie continued to work at the Federal Prison until her retirement in 2010. “I thought we would be having a joyous time, but God had other plans for our lives,” Bertie explained. “Four years after I retired, Glynn was diagnosed with renal disease in January 2014, and four months later, he needed dialysis three times a week for four hours a day. It was difficult but we made it work and continued to travel to various church conventions by planning ahead.”

The Fullers registered for a transplant at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock, and Glynn was approved to be placed on the waiting list. They waited six years before they got “the call” on November 14, 2020. “I can remember like it was yesterday,” Bertie recalled. “We were so excited and so were our church family, family, and friends.”

By midnight, Glynn was in surgery and arrived back at his room around 7 a.m. where Bertie was waiting for him – a bit of a miracle in itself due to COVID. “It wasn’t long before I was discovered still in the room and told I had to leave,” Bertie recounted. “But God had angels in place. My friend, Barbara Pitts Riley, who is a part of my support group, had already booked me a room at a nearby hotel.”

*Bertie (center) with her daughters, Helen McElveen and Tiffany Kennedy.*

Everything looked well, and Glynn was up and walking the next day, and by day three when the doctors made their rounds, they were considering discharging him in three to five days. But then he started looking bad – his eyes sunken. The doctors kept trying to figure out what was going on for nine days when they discovered that his colon had been nicked. Glynn was septic and needed surgery immediately. “It took nine days for doctors to discover this. He looked like death,” Bertie shared. “We thought the nightmare was over and recovery was on the way, but then a blockage of some sort occurred. I was told he was not healing right. They had to go back and remove more of his colon and also repaired an existing hernia. After these procedures, Glynn was not able to get up.”

*Pamela Moore, Glynn’s daughter, with his great-granddaughter, August.*

The downward spiral continued as Glynn developed issues with his lungs and had to be given a trach and feeding tube. “It went from bad to worse,” Bertie stated solemnly. “He was in God’s hands. I had his name on every prayer list of which I knew. People were praying all over, and my neighbors were taking care of my house.”

Eventually, Bertie had used all the hotel points that were donated to her by family. It was then that another small miracle occurred. Her god-daughter, attorney Daryl “Toni” Taylor, reached out to her. “I had no idea that she had relocated from Pine Buff to Little Rock two years prior and was living in the Governor’s Mansion District which was only minutes from the hospital,” Bertie said. “She told me I could come and stay with her for as long as I needed. I did not want to leave my husband. I stayed with him day and night.”

Glynn was finally released to CHRISTUS St. Michael’s step-down unit in April or May. They worked with him until he was able to go to Encompass for further rehabilitation. By this time, the trach had been removed, and he was “scooting around in the wheelchair.” Bertie thought he was almost home when one week prior to release, he was septic again. “He was airlifted to UAMS where he was treated once again. He coded five times, and I was told to call the family in. Amazingly, he coded a sixth time, but his heart started back on its own – and kept beating! God is faithful to His Word. We prayed and God listened. Of course, this was all so traumatic for me but God gave me strength to go on.”

The kidney was still functioning, but Glynn had breathing and lung issues again and had to be trached and tube fed again. This time they wanted to send him home on Hospice care because they said he wouldn’t get back to where he was. Bertie talked to Hospice staff who said they would make him comfortable. “He wanted to come home – but not to die as they had thought,” Bertie recalled. “He was tired. We brought him home after I called Encompass who told me they would take him since he had been a patient there prior to being sent back to UAMS.”

“Angels in disguise,” Bertie continued. “Encompass staff worked with my husband. They had faith too, and this was encouraging to me. Little by little, the speech therapist worked with him and soon he was on food again. The physical and occupational therapists worked with him, and soon he was scooting around on a rollator/walker. We had several other bumps in the road and had to return to UAMS. Then the news came that we never wanted to hear – the kidney failed. It went into rejection, and this time Glynn was sent home on dialysis again. We can accept God’s plan for his life because he’s alive and getting stronger every day. When the storms of life are raging, we learned to trust God.”

Glynn’s journey spanned 17 months. During that time, Bertie had to learn from the Encompass nurses to operate medical equipment to tube feed Glynn until he was able to eat by mouth, how to clean his trach and manage his oxygen until he was able to breathe on his own, and maintain his hygiene until he was able to do these things on his own. She expressed deep gratitude for those she believes God placed in her path – the medical professionals from Encompass, UAMS, Enhabit Home Health & Hospice, and CHRISTUS St. Michael, the DaVita staff who stayed in contact with them throughout the journey, and her family, church family, Zeta family, neighbors, and support group.

Throughout this extremely challenging period, it was her faith, her support group, and the “prayers of the righteous” that gave Bertie strength. The way Glynn and Bertie faced his severe health issues with grace and faith are a true testament to Bertie’s favorite scripture – Psalms 118:17 – I will live and not die and proclaim what God has done.

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