Jerry Smith shared, “My mother was born a deaf-mute and abandoned. At age 21 she was raped and I was born from that rape and abandoned. I grew up in foster care and graduated from high school at age 17.
I worked my way through college, at Louisiana State University, I briefly worked as a page in the Louisiana State Capitol and then I graduated at Northwestern State University with a degree in accounting in 1961. I obtained my Certified public Accountant certificate.
My first wife and grandson were killed and I attempted suicide. In 1970, I entered Real Estate. My first year in R.E., I made the Million Dollar Sales Club. In 1974, I eventually opened six real estate offices. In 1974, I met my current wife and we were married in 1975 and have been married 38 years. Together we have five children and nineteen grandchildren and great grandchildren.
In June 2004, I was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, an untreatable and incurable lung disease and given an estimated six months to two years to live. My doctor told me, ‘You have a death sentence, go home and wait for the end.’ In June 2006, I found a doctor in Germany who had a laboratory. After several months of research, he produced a serum using my blood and two years later, a fungus in my blood that caused the P.F. was cured. I will always suffer from P.F. and my lung capacity is approximately 52%. At this time, doctors don't know how long I might live as the average life span is 2 to 3 years from date of diagnosis.”
His therapeutic relief, “In June, 2008, I wrote my first book titled, Does God Give Us More Than We Can Bear? Zig Ziglar wrote my foreword. It became an Amazon Best Seller in July, 2011. My 3rd book titled, Tragedy, Abandonment and Murder Led to Happiness was released in December, 2012 and it explains how Forgiveness was the answer to my happiness.
In June 2010, I started telling my story in order to reach out to others to offer them hope. I started public speaking, and doing radio and television shows. I was written up in the Dallas Morning News and several magazines. In December, 2012, a screenwriter from California began writing a screenplay about my life using my first book.”
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