At Random: Tammy Buhler

Published 11:14 pm Sunday, November 22, 2009

I first wrote about the near death of Hsueh M. “Tammy” Buhler’s son, Buck, almost three decades ago, but I didn’t meet Tammy face to face until I walked the track at Valdosta Middle School with her and my sister this past spring. It was there she told me her fascinating story:

The former Buddhist from Taiwan, who only spoke a few words of English, was given by her father to a GI (Dusty Buhler) to marry; she was later taken from her relatives and homeland to the States when their daughter was only a few weeks old. It was there she discovered her husband was divorced (considered a disgrace by her culture) and that he had three children, who would come to live with them after their tour of duty in Turkey. The family had no funds for her to return home when a family member in Taiwan was dying. She would later face the near death of her son, then 3, when he fell off the back of a pickup truck. Earlier this year, as a bank teller, she would face her own possible death when robbers entered her bank and shot the bank vice president in the leg.



The beginning



Tammy grew up in a small village in Shanwa Township, Tainan County, Taiwan, the second of six children and the oldest of the three girls. Her family and extended family all lived in the same area. She completed the sixth grade in her homeland.

“Parents want the boys to get an education, but the girls have to learn how to cook, take care of the home and children, and work in the fields,” Tammy said.

“Girls only go to school when there is no work to do, unless the family is rich.”

Her family worshipped Buddha.

“Everyone’s house had an altar and a carved figure of Buddha or a god they worshipped,” she said. “There are hundreds of carved images inside the temple, and people take them home for them to worship.

“We became very poor when my father became very sick with cancer, and we gave everything we owned to the Buddha and the temple (for him to get well).”

In Taiwan, the custom is for the father to choose the husband for his daughter.

“Parents will seek fortune teller for advice for everything, including who the daughters will marry. My father went to the fortune teller and told him that someday I would marry a stranger from far away.”

After her father got well from his cancer, Tammy, at age 16, went to work in a nearby large city, working seven days a week with only one day a month off.

“We had no choice because we needed money,” she said. “I saved every penny to give to my parents, except for bus fare.”

Her salary was $10 a month working in a factory making fishing boat accessories. After three years, she would begin working at a shop selling souvenirs for Japanese and American GIs for $15 a month, with all the money again going to her parents. It was there she learned “a little bit” of English.

It was also there where she met a Chinese girl from her hometown who was married to a GI working at the Air Force base.

“Her husband knew Dusty and that’s how we got connected,” she said.

“I thought she was very beautiful,” Dusty remembers. “Her hair came down below her waist. She came across as the girl next door. She was an introvert, so it took me a long time to get a date with her.”

Six or seven weeks later, Dusty knew he wanted to make her his wife.

“When Dusty mentioned to my friend, Jenny, that he wanted to marry me, she mentioned it to my father, and my father said OK without question,” Tammy said. “No one in my family spoke English.

“I had no desire to marry a foreigner. I wanted to stay home with my family and help my sisters and my parents.”

Dutifully, she married Dusty in 1972. Three months later, she was pregnant with Yvonne, who was born in 1973. When the baby was only two or three weeks old, they came back to the States for a new assignment in New Mexico. Before going there, they stopped to see Dusty’s mom in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and there were three little children sitting on the couch, ages 6, 8, and 10.

“That was the first time I knew Dusty was married before and had three children,” she said. “He never told me because my family had not asked him. No one spoke any English.

“I started to get sick.”

In 1978, the children came to live with them in Valdosta when Dusty got an assignment to Moody Air Force Base.

“I was so miserable when I came to the States,” Tammy admitted. “I wanted to go home, but there was no money available.”

She worked and went to school at night.

“My desire was to save enough money and buy a ticket to Taiwan and take Yvonne home and never come back. That was my secret plan. I liked nothing here and I had no friends, and I was so scared because Yvonne was sick day and night. I have no car and I didn’t know how to speak.”

After two weeks, she had reached a point of desperation.

“I felt like killing myself except for Yvonne,” she said.

Tammy had saved $5,000 when Dusty was stationed in Turkey and she had learned the Turkish language and become a receptionist.

“I was going to go straight to the airline and buy a ticket home.”

But before they came to Valdosta, she became very sick: She was pregnant with Buck.

“I cried hard because my dream was shattered. I hated every minute and I hated Dusty brought me into this mess, and I wanted to be home with my family. I was trapped. I was so miserable.”

At nighttime, she worked at Moody AFB as a waitress while their other children babysat Buck.

“It was like I was a slave for them.”

When Buck was 3 in 1982, he was on the back of the truck with his stepbrother, Carl. His other stepbrother, Wade, and Dusty were in the cab, and they were on the way to Wade’s debate. Dusty was on the Hill Avenue exit to I-75 coming into Lowndes High when Buck fell off the truck. Carl tapped on the window and said Buck had fallen out. Buck was lying on 1-75, his head in a pool of blood.

“Dusty took Buck to Moody AFB Hospital and couldn’t find anyone to treat him, so he took him to SGMC.”

Neurologist Dr. Wade Wrenn spent nine hours in surgery on Buck, but told Dusty that Buck was in “God’s hand” because he had done all he could. If Buck made it, there was a possibility he would be a vegetable and have epilepsy the rest of his life.

The next day, Dusty sent Tammy home to take a shower. When she returned, Dusty said the hospital chaplain had prayed for Buck.

“What is chaplain?” Tammy asked.

“Dusty told me that is God’s messenger — like a monk in the temple in Taiwan telling people what Buddha say.”

While sitting in Buck’s hospital room, Tammy began to wonder if the chaplain’s God were real. She prayed and told God if He would heal Buck, she would give her life to Him.

“My heart was so sincere crying out to God,” she recalled.

Dr. Wrenn had predicted that Buck would be in the hospital for five or six months if he made it: Tammy’s 3-year-old was released in 2 1/2 weeks and wore a helmet for a year. He went on to become a talented wrestler at LHS and went to Anderson College in South Carolina on a full wrestling scholarship.

“Buck keeps his hair short so people can see his scars, and he can tell them about Jesus when they ask about them,” his mom said.

The stress of Buck’s accident had taken its toll on Tammy: She had lost down to 87 pounds and threw up every time she ate. She was at the Moody hospital for one week before being evacuated to Virginia Naval Hospital in Portsmouth for patients in critical condition.

“People would cry and scream because they knew they were dying,” Tammy said.

She would see two roommates die before Virginia came as her third.

“She was different, very friendly. She talked to me and told me about Jesus every day, and I hated that because I was so sick and didn’t care.”

Virginia took Tammy in the wheelchair on the beach.

“She told me about Jesus on the beach. I love her — only person nice and friendly. I kept wondering what was wrong with her.

“She told me Jesus was God’s Son, and I can give my life to God. One night she asked if I would pray with her. She came by my bed and said I can repeat after her (a prayer).”

After Virginia left the hospital the next day, Tammy took the IV off her hand and went outside to the beach where they had walked every morning and afternoon. Then she remembered what she had promised God.

“All of a sudden, like a lightbulb turned on in my head, (I knew) that God was real,” Tammy said. “Jesus come into my heart, and I give my life to God. I began to get excited and walked faster. A sunbeam came shining through the clouds. That was a moment I could never forget — like God was saying He was receiving me. All of a sudden I got energy. I called Dusty and said I had given my life to God and that we had to find a church.

“I never loved Dusty until I met Jesus.”

Tammy, who had been given 8,000 calories a day to make her body function, was diagnosed with a thyroid problem and released after a month of treatment.

After coming home, she found a church in Greenwood Baptist after a woman asked her to come to a revival there. After about 22 years there, she began seeking a church with a children’s program for her grandson. A friend of Dusty’s invited them to Northside Baptist, where they have been four years and Tammy sings in the choir.

Dusty describes his wife of 37 years as a “very honest, God-living person. Our Lord is No. 1 in her life. She’s very caring with her children and grandchildren, and she prays and prays and prays. I wish I could pray as much as she does. She’s a prayer warrior.”

Tammy relied on her prayers to her God when three robbers entered Citizens Community Bank on Baytree Road May 22, fired a shot and said, “We’re going to blow your head off.”

“One came after me and took everything in my till,” Tammy recalled. “He saw the night deposit and said, ‘Open that safe.’ When I was down there (on the floor), I was praying so hard. I remembered my morning devotion, Psalm 18:1-3. I kept reciting it. The Lord protected me.”

The robber yelled, “You’ve got 30 seconds, 20 seconds, 10 seconds.”

Before Tammy opened the safe, she got “real scared” because there was no money in there.

“My hands started shaking. When I opened the safe, he was mad because there was no money there. He saw a cop coming into the parking lot. He said, ‘Cop is here. We’ve got to go.”

“Thank you, God; thank you, God,” Tammy said. “(I felt) evil’s presence; then God showed up. Since that robbery, I got closer to God. And I am more sensitive to God. I love Him more.”

Whether she’s walking in the neighborhood or on the track, she’s talking to her Lord.

“Walking is when I do a lot of talking to God and asking him to help me. I have so much to be thankful for God is real in my life, and Jesus is like the best friend. I can talk to him 24-7. I can’t get enough learning about the Bible.”

Tammy and Jane Law have attended church together for many, many years.

“We were at Greenwood Baptist Church, and Tammy came there as a new Christian,” Law said. “She was such a sweet, genuine lady who spoke very little English. She had a huge hunger and thirst for the Word and studied it (and still does) faithfully. She began taking English classes to improve her English and her ability to communicate and has done so for many years. And her English and ability to communicate have steadily improved. She was a very faithful member of the church, taking every opportunity to learn more about her Savior. Tammy has never taken for granted the Bible or the church like we who were born into Christian homes in America sometimes do. Now, we go to church at Northside Baptist Church where Tammy is very active and sings in the choir. She is present at every worship service or Bible study to feed her passion for God’s Word, which is truly her passion.”

Sharon Parker was human resources director at Citizens Community Bank, located in the Hahira office, when she hired Tammy.

“She really impressed me with her sweet personality and loving spirit, and I knew, even before I was allowed to ask, that she was a Christian. I was determined to hire her if at all possible, and it really proved to be a wise choice. Her customers really love her and she has really been an asset to the bank. Since I retired three years ago, Tammy and I have become close friends and I cherish her friendship.

“She is a beautiful person, inside and out. She personifies the love of Christ in her words and actions. I count it an extreme privilege to call her my friend. To know her is to love her.”