Ila's Faith

What I remembered most about ninety-year-old Ila Mae Wild at her funeral today was her faith one week in 1995, when her then-20-year-old grandson, Marine Lance Corporal Zach Mayo, was reported missing from the aircraft carrier America in the Arabian Sea at night.

On a Saturday afternoon, marine officers visited his parents' Idaho home to report that after an unsuccessful search by four helicopters and two escort ships, Zach was missing at sea and presumed dead.

It was grandmother Ila who quietly but firmly maintained that Zach was not dead, and she prayed for his safety during the next four days. Even after a return visit from the marine officers on Tuesday brought no news except to confirm Zach was lost at sea, Ila still said Zach would be OK.

On Wednesday Zack's father's phone rang at 4 a.m. (in western USA) It was the American embassy in Pakistan, who put Zack on the line to tell his father of his rescue by a Pakistani fishing boat after 36 hours of treading water.

The national newspapers the following day were full of his story. According to the Chicago Tribune, Zach, an airplane maintenance expert, had gone out on deck to get some night air, and an opening door had brushed him into the sea. He followed marine training and tread water while fashioning make-shift life preservers by trapping air in his shed pants and shirt. The fishing boat found him a day and a half later and took him to the small seaport of Gwadar in Pakistan. It took a while to find an official who spoke enough English to connect him with the American embassy.

I talked with Zach today, now a 40-year-old civilian, at the reception after his grandmother Ila's funeral. Asked him how he had felt after treading water that long. “Very tired” was his sober response, “I was unconscious when they lifted me into the boat.”

The miracle was not only his endurance, but that anyone happened to spot him at all in the vast Arabian Sea. I have witnessed faith many times in my medical practice, but have never seen faith to match Ila's assurance that, with God's help, her grandson was safe.