Quinkydinks

When my son was a young man, if something unusual would happen, my wife or I might use the term coincidence. Unable to say the word, he pronounced it “quinkydinks.” I have used that word ever since.

I have had several quinkydinks in my practice of law as well as outside the practice. One apparently Godly woman came to me with a great moral case but an apparently non-existing one legally. After putting a large amount of money in her account after a victorious court case I pondered about the quinkydink of it all.

You see, it all started in Syria when a missionary converted a family to Christianity. Because of the hostilities to Christians, the family moved to the United States and their son started working for a large company in Chicago. Dissatisfied with a change in responsibilities due to a downturn in the economy, he decided to go to law school in Indianapolis, and spent a short time in Noblesville, where we became acquainted.

After law school, he took a job with the same large company but in China. Home on leave from China, he had an occasion to meet an old friend who had received a call from my client. The client had previously sought services from another lawyer who had passed away mid-stream in litigation. My China friend was asked by his buddy to whom to refer the case, as it was a complicated matter that the other lawyer didn’t handle.

Of course, my Noblesville friend referred the case to me.

Action had been filed on behalf of the client, but the case appeared to have been wrongly filed, as no case of action appeared to exist. I counseled dismissing the defendants. The problem was that one defendant wanted to take a deposition first. During the deposition, the out-of-state attorney became quite belligerent with my client, who was faithfully answering all questions, admitting that no lawsuit had been requested from the deceased attorney, only an investigation on what to do. When I warned the out-of-state attorney to be more civil and he did not comply, I terminated the deposition and sought Court intervention.

On the date of hearing, the out-of-state attorney did not appear but sent yet another out-of-state attorney of a softer gender. Working on the internet on another problem, I came across information that later was important in my client’s case.

The opposing counsel made a representation to the Court that only hours before I had seen as false in my internet search. This internet evidence, found the morning of trial, allowed me to prove the representations of opposing counsel to be less than candid, which greatly perturbed the judge. The case was not won by any efforts of my own but lost by the untruthful actions of the opposing party. Moral justice prevailed and a another quinkydink was born.

Another quinkydink started when I received one of the usual letters lawyers receive from the penitentiary asking for help. A prisoner wanted to be released from prison. I don’t remember the exact details, but it seems like the prisoner had been convicted of rape, robbery, burglary, murder, theft, drugs, and assorted other crimes. The difference in his story was the support of the prison warden who asked that he be released!

It appeared that when he went into prison, he decided the easiest occupation was to be the assistant in the chapel. While there, he found Christ. As reported by the warden, he became a new man. Although his past record was horrendous, with the support of the warden, he was released early from prison.

And yet another quinkydink happened on Mother’s Day numerous years ago. The pastor had asked all the ladies over 70 to stand up and then he consecutively requested ladies to set down naming off additional ages, until the oldest lady in the church was left standing. She was given a round of applause at which point everyone was asked to stand to sing. I had injured my back in my thirties, and on occasion had to use my grandma’s walker to complete my functions at the Courthouse. My back hurt so bad that I wanted to sit down but felt embarrassed that I couldn’t stand as long as the oldest lady in the church.

After the song ended, the pastor, who had never mentioned healing before or after to my knowledge, called out that God had told him that someone with neck or back pain needed to come forward and be healed. Since I was the sixth or seventh person in the pew row, I remember thinking to God that if He were going to heal me, I didn’t need to come forward, he could do it right there. My back pain instantly ceased.

Thinking that it was all in my head, later that day I was working in a building using a floor scraper scrapping up PVC tile to lay down carpet. I wanted to test whether the healing was real. I had worked enough scraping the floor that had I not been healed, I would not have been able to walk the next day. No problems, no pain, and none since. For some unknown reason, God chose to heal me that day.

Some may call it a quinkydink.