WS Chronicle

By John Raye

A few years ago, a few unexpected things happen to me. Some were good. Some were bad.

• I lost my job (layoff)
• I lost my home (foreclosure)
• I lost my good credit (no money)
• I lost my health (colon cancer)
• My wife lost her health (right brain stroke)
• I lost my life savings (almost $450,000 cash money)
• I lost all my real estate proprieties (including a 43 acre tree farm)

That was the bad stuff. Now, here’s the good stuff:

• I did not lose my dignity
• I did not lose my mind
• I did not lose my spirit
• I did not add loss-to-loss
• I did not worry nor get depressed
• I did not panic nor become afraid
• I did not doubt nor second-guess myself
• I did not fight nor leave my wife
• I did not feel ashamed, embarrassed or hide from people
• I beat colon cancer; my wife beat the right-brain stroke
• I became self-employed in my own business

Some 25 years ago, I worked as a television news anchor in Washington, D.C.

Before making it big in the nation’s capital, history had rewarded me with the position of being the first Black television news anchor in the Pacific Northwest, and one of the first in the nation.

I was based in Seattle, Washington and anchored for KING-TV, the NBC affiliate. In Washington, D.C. I anchored for what is now the Fox television affiliate. In order to integrate the TV news business, a selected group of Blacks and Hispanics were sent for training to Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in New York City, and later for me, the Washington Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.

After my television career came to an inglorious end, I became a self-employed business and marketing consultant. By now, I had developed an intense interest in health and wellness primarily because of chronic health problems, many being stress related.

I joined an Arizona-based company called Forever Living, a multi-billion dollar conglomerate and now the world’s largest maker of Aloe Vera products. This particular brand of Aloe Vera soon cleared up my chronic health issues. It is not sold in retail stores, not even health food stores.

Now, 25 years later, I’m heading back home — back to Forever Living and the miracle-healing, kosher-balal certified Aloe Vera Gel, this God sent product that extended my mother’s life, and greatly impacted my life. Miss Rosie, my wife of 50 years, has fully recovered from a massive right brain stroke and I am a 7-year cancer survivor.