We started traveling north and realized we would be within a few miles of Roanoke. We decided to stop in and see Dr. Reams and tell him all about our time at Blue Ridge (Doc had not been to Blue Ridge in several months at that point) He had left the administration of the retreat in Eugene Reams and Dodie’s hands. We learned a great deal from both of them; they taught us how to test, how to read some of what was going on in the body, what regimen would be needed for different individuals to balance their metabolism. Dr. Reams always said that each body was unique; if God did not make 2 snowflakes exactly the same, why on earth would he make carbon copies of humans! They may share a lot of similar features, coloring, and cultural and religious customs, but they each have their own unique personality and God-given minds. Since the advent of DNA testing, we know that we can place people into categories by their genes, but the uniqueness is still in place within each one.
Luckily, Dr. Reams was at the retreat in Roanoke and welcomed us with open arms. We sat and chatted for an hour or more and suddenly Doc said, “Where are you going now?” We replied that we were heading home to Herkimer, and he immediately responded that we should stay at Roanoke and go to work for him there. Impulsive? That was Doc! Meanwhile, his secretary, Fern Stansfield had come in and we could see that she was not that enthusiastic about this whole idea.
Over the years, we learned that Doc wanted everybody to work with and for him for the advancement of the program; he spent little time or thought as to what they could contribute and even less time or thought on how he was going to pay them.
That was Fern’s department. They already had a fairly large staff at Roanoke and Doc had not even consulted his Administrator regarding hiring these ‘two little old ladies’ that had been at Blue Ridge. We had been called that, plus some other choice names such as ‘a couple of dodoes’ by Bob Hoskins, the head of the Agricultural Labs, Dr. Reams’ mineral and vitamin company. We chose to ignore the name calling and set out to prove to everyone at Tinker Mountain that we could be a great asset to the retreat and to the program in general.
A bit later that day, we were finally introduced to the administrator of the retreat, Jack Shaver, along with his wife, Loretta, who was very pregnant. I will say right here that one of the greatest benefits of being involved with this program has been the wonderful relationships that grew out of working with so many quality people.
Each person involved in the Reams’ work brought their own story and a desire to help others. Jack and Loretta Shaver were no exception to that rule; they had left a very comfortable life in Salt Lake City to come east and work with Dr. Reams. They had seen many wonderful results with people that had been ill and been given up by the medical community as hopeless cases. After going through the program themselves and finding a path to better health for themselves and their family, they sold everything they had and came to Roanoke to take charge of Tinker Mountain Retreat for Dr. Reams. We have counted Jack and Loretta and their family as dear friends and extended family ever since. Jack passed away about 2 years ago; Loretta returned to Utah and still lives there. We often talked about all the things that happened in Virginia, a lot of which will be in the book which they had encouraged me to write a long time ago.
After meeting the administrator and getting his approval for us to start working at the retreat, we settled in and began showing everyone that we were ready and willing to work and to learn. The days were long but very rewarding. We began to learn all bout the program, thanks to Dr. Reams’ son, Eugene, who was a marvelous teacher….much better than his dad. That was because Doc was so far ahead of us in math and the chemistry used for the formula that he often talked over our heads…..also, he was at least a generation ahead of the rest of the world in recognizing that we could really affect our own body chemistry.
We brought the knowledge that we had gained at Blue Ridge and soon found our special niche at Roanoke. Betty began working with Eugene in the counseling office; I began working with Fern in the office and going around to visit the guests in their rooms as Doc would tell them what his findings were from the testing that was done twice a day. That was such a learning experience for me; I wanted to know how Doc saw what he did in those numbers and the reading of the sclera of the eye. It was amazing to sit there and listen to him detail a person’s medical history just from the numbers. If I was amazed, you can imagine how the guests were absolutely astounded at his readings. They always asked, ‘Who told you about that?’ when he would describe some illness or surgery they had, sometimes years earlier. He would always laugh and say, ‘It’s in the numbers’or ‘It’s in the eye readings.’
I am most happy to say that I can see a lot of what Dr. Reams could see…never as much as he could, but enough for me to analyze where a person’s body chemistry is and what is needed to bring it back into line. Dr. Reams always said that he could take a set of numbers and eye readings, adding age, height, weight and sex and it was like opening a book and reading what was going on inside that individual’s body. I heard him tell a woman that she had a tumor growing in her stomach; she was totally shocked and promptly made an appointment with an oncologist. She did not tell him about Dr. Reams’ assessment, but waited for his results….he told her there was nothing wrong with her, probably she had a bit of diverticulitis and she would be just fine. Then the woman made an appointment through her family doctor for an X-ray and, guess what?….there was a huge, possibly cancerous, tumor that no one had discovered despite regular check-ups. Woops! She opted for the Reams program instead of surgery and after several months on the program, the tumor actually shrank and much of it was resorbed into her tissues, she felt so well that she went back to work and, as we followed her for several years, there was no recurrence of the tumor or any spread of cancer anywhere in her body.
Does the Reams program work? I believe it does and my opinion has not changed in over 30 years.
[End of part III. Next we meet young Tony and laetrile. Feel free to post comments in the form of either feedback, questions, or kudos. Rex Harrill has been assigned to arrange the sclerology seminar, but no date or place has been formalized. Elinor remains ready to pass the sclerology wisdom that Reams personally passed her to others before passing from the scene herself.]