Dennis the Menace was a popular TV show in the 1950’s. My brother could have played the
part. From the day he was born, he cried. I don’t think he ever stopped crying until he
finally learned to walk. Walking made it possible for him to get into everything. He never
stopped moving. Everything he did was done with everything that was in him. He ran faster
than anybody. He climbed higher, he yelled louder than a whole room full of fourth
graders.
His bed room was the worse room you ever saw in your life. Nothing around him was ever
in any order. Chaos was his middle name. He never stopped talking. He told everyone,
everything he knew. And believe you me, he knew everything. He hardly ever obeyed his
teachers or our parents, but never the less, he was the most beloved kid in the school and
in the entire neighborhood. Everyone loved him in spite of himself. After all, he was
Dennis the Menace.
All of his life, everything Dennis did was done in a mighty big way. He was the biggest
clown at every event. He wore a Hopalong Cassidy hat for many years, and he was the
bravest cowboy in every dangerous activity. I once saw him climb up a fifty foot rock wall in
a quarry and dive down into shallow water and swim away with a smile on his face. He was a
fearless bicycle showman. He was always covered with scrapes and scratches. He came
home with bloody legs almost every day.
When Dennis started high school he got in more trouble by himself than the total of
everybody else in the whole school. When he got caught, he could sweet talk everyone,
and everyone loved him.
At the age of 14, Dennis witnessed a horrible experience, that he never got over. On that
Sunday afternoon I saw Dennis get drunk for the first time. Thus began a lifetime of
struggling with a difficult addiction.
But, he really was a good kid, most of the time. One Summer he volunteered to work at
Camp Easter Seal caring for disabled children. More recently he spent time working at a
abused women’s shelter, painting, cleaning and buying groceries for abused women and
their children.
At the age of sixteen he received his drivers license. When our dad gave him a key to an
old Chevy, he suddenly discovered the word “speed.” Eventually he built his own racecar,
Number 69, and won and lost races on the dirt tracks of Virginia. When he got tired of the
race car, he bought a German sports car that would go 140 miles per hour. He could leave
my GT in the dust.
He started Wiggy’s Printing Company, became successful and was elected to the board
directors of a community college. He helped many to find ways to attend the college. He
was always helping others., but continued to struggle with alcohol. Everyone was happy
when he finally stayed sober for a long time in the 1980’s. But, he fell back into addiction
for most of his life.
Dennis became very interested in all kinds of science, especially astronomy. He even paid
to name a star in some far away galaxy. He kept us laughing talking about the aliens that
were coming to earth from a planted that circled his star.
Dennis bought one of the first personal computers ever sold. It had only 16K of memory. I
bought one too. He became an expert, writing software and amazing people with his
abilities. I never understood how it worked, but he taught me a way for us to send signals
back and forth from his computer in Virginia to mine in New Jersey. The signal was carried
over long distance telephone lines. It was like our on private e-mail many years before we
ever heard the word “Internet.” I don’t think we were doing anything illegal. I hope.
There were so many things that Dennis did in life, I could never write about it all. There
were times that I thought he was “wigged out” as the Wiggs family called it, but in reality,
He was a genius , who no one understood, but he really did know what he was doing. At
least he made me believe it.
The last time I saw Dennis drunk was almost four years ago at the first meeting of a new
program called Turning Point. I invited him to come, along with several others who were
struggling with addiction, but he was the only one that I saw come in drunk. That night was
the last time I saw him drink alcohol. He truly turned his life around. He listened to the
biblical and spiritual teaching and he held on to every word of testimonies of victory over
addiction that he heard that night. Those stories he heard from others inspired him. He
slowly moved out of his unbelief into his own freedom.
Dennis started attending that meeting every week. He sat up the room, brought snacks and
cleaned up after the meeting was over. He continued to meet others who were living a
sober life. For many years I had seen Dennis drinking and often drunk. Behind the seat of
his pickup truck was always many empty beer cans. Wherever he lived, beer cans
scattered over his floors. Often, I had talked to him about going sober, but he always said
that he could not do it. But, something happened at that first Turning Point meeting. He
came to the turning point in his own life where he was able to trust God and surrender his
mind and heart to be free. It has been almost four years since that night in the basement of
a church when he stopped the direction he was going in, and with help of many, turned
around and let God restore his life to what he had always needed it to be.
The beer had disappeared. There were no more empty cans in his truck. I never smelled
beer on his breath again. No more driving drunk. No more arrests. No more time in jail.
Dennis lived sober for the last four years of his life. He and I became good friends. We ate
together, talked about the good things of life. He read his Bible, listened to K-Love
Christian radio and watched Christian TV. Many around him, began to know him as a kind
and helpful man. When he could hardly walk, he would be seen cutting grass for the
elderly, helping the abused, going to AA meeting with his new friends, repairing old
computers and giving them away. He always loved his dogs but it was obvious that his
dogs loved him even more after he sobered up.
On June 13, 2009 I found that Dennis had died at his home. Years of struggling with
diabetes had ended the best four years of his life. The first thing I noticed when I went in
his house was that there were no beer cans, just Diet Pepsi cans . No doubt, he died
drinking a Diet Pepsi, watching his TV as a pastor preached on air from a local church, and
playing with his beloved dogs. Dennis had finally spent some good sober years. A friend of
his said to me when I had told him of Dennis’ death, “That’s what I want to do, live sober for
the rest of my life , die sober and then go to Heaven.”
Dennis lived a rough life, but through God’s love he was restored. 1 Peter 5:10 says: “...the
God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little
while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the
power for ever and ever. Amen.”
Dennis is living eternal sobriety. He would want us all to allow goodness of God to restore
us to all that we were intended to be.
Written by — Ray Wiggs, Dennis' brother.
Live Sober, Die Sober, Go To Heaven The Story of Dennis Wayne Wiggs Born March 29, 1949 in Danville, VA Died June 13, 2009 in Danville, VA By Ray Wiggs, Dennis' Brother |
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