Annmarie Throckmorton, M.A.
- Mar 8, 2019

An Irresistible Grip On His Gun Hand

As the story goes, and I have no reason to disbelieve it other than it is impossible, sometime in the early twentieth century my paternal great-grandmother Gra awoke abruptly from her sleep in bed in St. Paul, Minnesota, sat bolt upright, and in great fear for her son, reached out her hands and cried, "Lloyd, don't shoot!" Her young son, Lloyd, who was at that moment working as an armed but not licensed security guard at a warehouse in southern California, simultaneously felt an irresistible grip on his gun hand so he did not shoot the thieves who had broken into the warehouse. His partner did shoot, wounding and killing the thieves, and his partner was subsequently imprisoned. My uncle Lloyd went on to become a prosperous foot and ankle surgeon, living in San Clemente, California, just up the street from a young Richard Milhous Nixon who would become President of the United States. Such good fortune probably would not have been possible for Lloyd if he had had a criminal record.

Even as a child it sounded to me as if great-grandmother Gra had concocted a cover story for her son Lloyd from as far away as Minnesota, but the adults in our family swore by her story.