LETTER TO MY GR GR GRANDFATHER, DR. JOSIAH DANIEL JARRARD, PHYSICIAN & METHODIST  MINISTER, MOSSY CREEK, GA.  LETTER IS FROM  "J.S. PEMBERTON" DATED OCT 3, 1883 WHO LIVED IN EDGEWOOD, GEORGIA  (the man who invented Coca Cola)
Submitted by Diane Ethridge
 
 
Dear Doctor:
 
I have your kind & highly appreciated letter.  I can assure the sentiments of sympathy & interest you feel in my case is truly consoling & comforting to me.  I would rather have your prayers in my behalf than all the medical skill & science in the world.  In all of our afflictions and misfortunes, where all is dark & gloomy around us, light shines out of darkness to those only who look up to God and ask in prayer for help & deliverance.  My faith is strong and I am able to say, "God's ways are best" and whatever afflictions & misfortunes come, I feel that I can drink the cup to the dregs & look up and ask for more if it is God's will.  Oh, what is all the pain, sorrow, afflictions & misfortunes of life when compared to one hour of celestial enjoyment.  One can suffer long & well when he feels in his soul that it is all for his or her good &  that it  is the work of our Heavenly Father preparing us for the bright beautiful Heavenly abode.  Home is where all loved ones have gone on before us and oh, to be with all of the pure & beautiful that have been redeemed by the blood of Christ our Saviour.   If we meet no more on earth, I pray that we meet again  in our Father's house in Heaven. 
 
I am glad to inform you that my condition is somewhat better than when I wrote to you last.  The inflammation is not as bad & the ulceration is improved.  Dr. W. F. Westmoreland says that I will have to have an operation performed to remove the strictures & close the fistula openings  before I can ever get well but says that I am not strong enough for the operation.  He says that I will have to build up my system, get more vitality & blood before he can make the operation.  I will place all my reliance for recovery on God, nature & prayers.  I beg you to remember me and ask God to save me & have mercy upon my poor soul & forgive all my sins for Jesus sake. 
 
With love to you & all my friends, especially to Cooly & his family -  to all I say God bless you.
 
                                           Truly yours,
 
                                                             J. S. Pemberton
 
P.S.  Please excuse haste & write again soon.