ITEMS OF INTEREST September 14, 2009 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

with contributions from Becky Beane

During his violent episodes, Butch Beckwith's stepdad often locked the youngster in the dank, dirty cellar. Butch usually settled on a spot of the steps where rays of sunlight sneaked in through the door. "I would sit there and be comforted by that light."

Some 40 years later, Butch now associates those warm, soothing rays with the light of God. "I believe He's been there all the time, watching me and protecting me," he says.

God's presence was not so evident to him back in his youth—when drug addiction, alcoholism, and the sheer viciousness of his stepfather sucked most of the hope from Butch's home in Topeka, Kansas. Three times his mother tried to kill herself. After the last attempt, she decided to send her children to foster homes "until she got better," Butch explains. He was eight years old when "this lady came and took us away."

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