Christian Living

---

When our loved ones die, especially loving parents, we often discover some of their finest qualities even as we remember the ones we already knew. April 1994 was the year in which I discovered the tragedy and triumph associated with my mother’s death.

In January of that year, my mother complained of not feeling well. An x-ray was taken and the truth was plain to see. She had cancer. There could be no doubt about it. This huge dark mass obliterated the lines of the colon. We had to wait for surgery because it was now Friday and the surgeon’s Tuesday surgery day was already full. In the meantime there would be tests--tests that would eventually reveal that the cancer was everywhere. It was just a matter of time.

This was my mother, and I was her only child. For forty years, we had journeyed with a spiritual umbilical cord that had never been cut. We could look at one another and know what the other was thinking.

At seventy years of age, she was dancing in Trinidad at the Carnival, having a massage on a cruise ships; celebrating life while supporting an orphan in Malaysia; funding scholarships for several children in private school and performing numerous other acts of charity. She used hard-earned money that she had carefully invested. It was not until after her death that I learned of the extent of her generosity. Her heart had made her the mother of many.

Her health food interest combined with daily swimming routines in the summer and efforts to walk in the Bahamian winter had preserved her for this length of time. She had been a good steward of God’s resources. But it was soon to come to an end. My vivacious and effervescent mother was nearing the end of her journey. We had a prayer meeting at my house with just a few of her special friends present. We prayed for healing, and there was a spiritual release of a deep inner peace visible on her face, but her body did not respond. We tried to rest in the Lord’s will, whatever that would be.

Her doctor recommended surgery to relieve her discomfort, which only served to confirm the worst. I read the Bible for her in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital, and played my Good Friday sermons on Easter Sunday for her: “Today you will be with me in Paradise” and “I Thirst”. We drank deeply of the Living Water for which we were both thirsting. This was God’s umbilical cord that would never be cut. All the prayers, hymns, sermons and Bible study through all our years sustained us now. She said she wanted to go home and I gave her permission to go; our cord needed to be cut to set her free. Unlike many who die at 3: 00 a.m., she died on Easter Tuesday, April 6, 1994 at 2:59 a.m. Even in death she was a woman ahead of her time.

Are you making the most of the relationships that you have with family members and friends? Celebrate life with a firm faith and you find strength in times of grief and loss. Remember to discover the heroes in your home before they die.

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE