Mrs. Waltonen is a former gym teacher at Nicolae Carpathia High School until she was arrested by the Global Community and sent to a re-education facility for becoming a believer.
Biography[]
After the Rapture[]
Mrs. Waltonen is the teacher of Vicki's first period physical education class. After the students received the housekeeping announcements about parking permits, books, and gym clothes, Mrs. Waltonen asked her class what did they thought about the children disappearing. When a student merely asked what most people thought caused the disappearances, Mrs. Waltonen tried to terminate the discussion, saying that they were not supposed to raise the subject. (There was an all-school assembly earlier that morning where the principal, Laverne Jenness, had discouraged students and faculty from even suggesting the "religious explanation" for the disappearances on school property due to her stringent and dubious understanding of the "separation of church and state".) Mrs. Waltonen's response indicated that she thought that most people had subscribed to the religious explanation of the disappearances. She did note the irony that ever since the vanishings other subjects that were previously off-limits can be mentioned in public, but for some reason, but God and religion became a taboo subject.
Mrs. Waltonen revealed to the class that she lost her six-month old granddaughter, along with the child's father and Mrs. Waltonen's husband's sister, the sister-in-law's husband, and her whole family. Vicki asked Mrs. Waltonen whether she noticed anything different about her sister-in-law's family. Mrs. Waltonen indicated that a salient difference was that they were Christians because she expressed reluctance to talk about the difference. While the students vocally disapproved of the notion that Jesus took away the people who vanished, Vicki saw an opportunity to let the student explained what they think had happened, and Mrs. Waltonen agreed with that suggestion. A student speculated that this was a science experience from an extraterrestrial agent that went wrong, when they were beaming stuff like in Star Trek but that they beamed the wrong people and they cannot bring them back.
When the were trying to figure out whether the disappeared were still alive, Vicki asserted that she knew that they were alive. Mrs. Waltonen replied that she would love to know that they were alive but one cannot be certain of it. She asked Vicki to explain how she knew that and where the people who vanished were. Vicki complained about the inanity of having she freedom of speech curtailed some rule of "separation of church and state". Vicki became peeved when a student complained that Vicki was pushing her religious beliefs on others, and she responded that she does not accuse others of forcing beliefs on her when they propound that aliens or "Star Trek scientists" were responsible for the vanishings. Vicki asked Mrs. Waltonen about the historical origins of church and state separation. Mrs. Waltonen said that she knew it was not in the constitution and that the people who supported it did so under the desire to protect citizens from having their religious freedom infringed upon by the government. Mrs. Waltonen said that it is a right for citizens to believe and worship as they pleased without the government dictating what church one should belong to.
She said that she slipped in New Hope Village Church a few times and even heard Vernon Billings' video about the Rapture.
She was the only person standing after Judd Thompson Jr. delivered a speech during graduation that included a call to repentance and confession that Jesus is Lord. During the speech, Judd unveiled a banner with its text quoting John 3:16. A guard roughly ushered Mrs. Waltonen from the room. In On the Run, when Vicki Byrne said that she last saw Mrs. Waltonen at the graduation but that she had not heard anything about her since. Candace Goodwin confirmed that she and Coach Handlesman were at a re-education facility.
Personality[]
She was thin and dark, with short hair and glasses. Mrs. Waltonen is in her mid-forties before the Tribulation started (as indicated by the signing of the treaty between Israel and the Global Community). While in gym class, she had a shrill whistle and barked orders to the student in a manner that gave her the aura of a demanding and confident authority figure.
In her physical education class after the Rapture, she struggled to recognize Vicki Byrne because Vicki did not wear her usual makeup. She complimented Vicki, saying that she liked Vicki's look.
The disappearances traumatized her since she was unwilling to allow discussion on the cause of the disappearances but instead gave her students the opportunity to express their feelings about it. She was particularly focused the children disappearing because she lost her grandchild, which is a six-month old baby. The baby's father, her son-in-law, was raptured. She was not consoled at the Christian explanation where God took those who disappeared to heaven since she thought God was "mean" for taking the children away. Her odium and adversarial stance towards Christianity motivated her to report Coach Handlesman and testify against Vicki concerning the publication and distribution of The Underground. Nevertheless, she found Vicki Byrne intriguing because she exhibited fortitude, grace, serenity, and purpose; Vicki was one of the few people Mrs. Waltonen encountered who became a better person because of the disappearances.
Appearances[]
- 5. Nicolae High (first appearance)
- 6. The Underground
- 7. Busted!
- 8. Death Strike (last appearance)
Mentions[]
- 10. On the Run
Trivia[]
- Mrs. Waltonen's first appearance was in book 5.
- It is currently unknown if Mrs. Waltonen survived to the Glorious Appearing.
- It is currently unknown if her experience of re-education shaped Mrs. Waltonen into a model citizen of the Global Community.
- Waltonen could be an alternative form of Valtonen, a surname of Finnish origin.
- Mrs. Waltonen's first name was never revealed.
- In Busted!, the 7th book of the Left Behind: The Kids series, Mrs. Waltonen was referred to as "Laverne Waltonen". This is likely an error by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.