I have intentionally been procrastinated writing this post for over six weeks. Maybe if I never write it I will find I am just having a bad dream. Somehow, actually posting means admitting that I have been awake all along...
I have posted on Facebook, and on Substack (where my current content is most-regularly posted), and answered countless texts and emails. But this blog was my final holdout of denial.
Mom had a tough year, breaking her kneecap in February, 2025, then facing many, many discouraging and agonizing months of infection. It took a full year and three surgeries to repair the initial knee injury and ongoing complications.
Just as Mom was starting to transition to slightly more mobility, she
had a stroke in early February of this year. While "there is no such thing as a small stroke," Mom's February event only seriously sidelined her for about a week. We were shaken, but very thankful for such a relatively "mild" stroke compared to the ones that nearly took my life in 2011. Within a single week, Mom regained more hearing and eyesight and abilities than I had gained in my first ten years!
On the morning of Tuesday, March 10th, Dad took Mom was in Emergency Room with a kidney stone. When I called the next morning, she had already slipped into a coma due to a septic kidney infection that led to an uncontrollably large, and ever-growing, stroke. (I never knew one family could hear that diagnosis so many times!)
It was a heartbreaking honor to hold Mom's hand as she took her final breath of earthly air on Saturday, March 14, 2026. With that last breath, Mom opened her physical eyes that had been shut for 3 1/2 days, and with a look of wonder like a kid on Christmas morning, opened her spiritual eyes to the perfect face of Jesus. Mom's
obituary is posted on Facebook and her
Celebration of Life service was recorded at Boons Ferry Community Church (
my memories start around minute 16).
For over six weeks now, Mom has been absent from her body. How my grieving heart aches for me, for my Dad who is now a widow after 60 years, and for all of us! But I know that Mom is fully alive in the presence of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In this assurance, the grief-drenched fog finds its anchor. One day I will be with Mom, in an endless day that will never close in any tomorrow.
To the relentless loneliness I write, “But when this corruptible puts on the incorruptible, and this mortal puts on immortality, then will come about the word that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” -1Cor. 15:55-57
P.S. If you have been following my brain training
Bible memorization journey these past five years, or joined me for my
recitation of the Christmas story last year, you are likely aware of
my desire to memorize the entire Gospel of John. Due to Mom's February stoke, though "mild," I was significantly shaken up and thrown off track with memory work in John chapter 6, slowing my progress significantly for several weeks. After Mom's death last month, I could not bring myself to continue forward in this passage that was so closely tied by my experiences, to the timing of her death.
While, Lord willing, I do hope to resume my John memorization attempt in the fall, I am taking an intentional step back from this book for right now, and plan to spend my summer internalizing Paul's little letter to Titus. While John
chapter 6 is 71 verses long, the entire
book of Titus is only 46 verses, so seems "do-able" and is a very nice change of pace for me with a different author, genre, and writing style! Feel free to follow along all summer on Substack or
YouTube as I attempt to post progress videos several times each week.
Comments
Post a Comment