This has been a week for loss and sad news.  My precious daughter-in-love’s dear mom lost her battle with Parkinson’s and went to be with the Lord a few days ago.  A precious Christian, Joan loved the Lord with all her heart.  She went to sleep on this earth and woke up in Heaven.  What a blessed way for a Christian to leave this life on earth!   Please remember my son and Jeanine and their family as they make the long journey from Montana to East Tennessee to say goodbye.  My heart goes with them…

My precious sister Gerry has now been in Heaven for three years.  I have missed her more than words could say every single day.  Her husband of 65+ years and the love of her life has missed her even more.  He is lost without her.  He is now in a coma with his children at his bedside…waiting to go home to be with the Lord and  his beloved.  He is a strong believer and has sung in the choir for many years.  Just as I imagine my sister Gerry is cooking heavenly biscuits while she sings praises to the Lord, I imagine my brother by marriage will be singing in Heaven’s choir…and once again strumming his guitar.

My last year of nursing was spent as in Oncology, and on the walls of the unit there hung this beautiful poem below.  This is how I imagine death and dying…and I have seen several leave this earth during my long nursing career.  Hallelujah, our souls never die!   Thank God, He has made provision for us to spend eternity with Him through His Son!  

The Sailing Ship

What is dying?
I am standing on the seashore.
A ship sails to the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.
She is an object and I stand watching her
Till at last she fades from the horizon,
And someone at my side says, “She is gone!” Gone where?
Gone from my sight, that is all;
She is just as large in the masts, hull and spars as she was when I saw her,
And just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination.
The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not in her;
And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “She is gone”,
There are others who are watching her coming,
And other voices take up a glad shout,
“There she comes” – and that is dying.

Bishop Charles Henry Brent (1862-1929)

UPDATE:  Wednesday, October 22nd.  Sonny passed away peacefully last night at 11:47 p.m. with his and Gerry’s family by his bedside.  There may be sadness on earth, but there is rejoicing in Heaven as he joins my sister Gerry and the rest of those who have gone before.  What a wonderful, blessed hope we have in Jesus!