September 12, 2019 at 6:18:51 AM EDT
Aunt Peg died yesterday morning. Those five words are words most people seem to dread. I don’t know if the dread comes from fear of the unknown, fear of divine retribution, simply not knowing what is next, but mostly they seem rooted in fear of what lies ahead.
I have learned again recently, through my trials and in a very powerful way, all about what lies ahead. The Bible provides a very clear map of the future for the evil and also for the righteous (think the “redeemed”). I am keenly aware that many folks would think I am a fool for taking this view. Yet it is my testimony and my life to decide.
I miss Peg. She was so giving and caring. She bore the weight of my circumstances personally as soon as she discovered what was going on with us. I became acquainted with her very shortly after my surgery in July of 2018. I was recuperating from surgery, the 3 years of severe pain and muscle wasting, the 9 years of decline. I had already been laid off from work for about 6 or 8 eight weeks when she came up to me in church, introduced herself, and told me about her brother-in-law who had been diagnosed similarly and was scheduled for the same surgery. I was of course happy to be alive and mending. I was open with her and thankful for the sentiment.
A couple of months later as fall arrived she followed up on the sentiment. Knowing from our conversations that I was out of work during this time she began employing my teen boys to come and rake leaves and work in the yard at her house. They went many times to work there, with Peg and Ruth, lots of leaves.
Leading up to Thanksgiving, me still unemployed, she and Ruth gave us boxes of food for a Thanksgiving feast. We were very grateful. A few days later she came up to me at church on Sunday morning and asked if they could purchase some gifts for the children for Christmas. She asked for a list of things they would each enjoy receiving, anonymously of course. She even gave Dannielle and I gifts and an envelope with $100. They were so kind. Since then we have fostered our relationship with her at church and during the days in between coming to know and love this lady.
She found out about the need for a heart valve replacement some time in the late winter or early spring I think, an invasive surgery she had needed and had before. She seemed anxious about the surgery. A few months passed and the all the testing and prep was completed and she felt prepared, I think, for surgery and the recovery. Everything was scheduled, yet she was still anxious. We didn’t talk much at church. She was engaged in the worship and the message and loving on everyone but she would be gone early from the service and we didn’t get to talk. It became rare that we would even see each other during the Sunday celebrations and shake hands or hug. I assumed it was anxiety about the surgery. Maybe God was telling her something. We were praying for her, for the the surgeons to have wisdom, for God to guide their hands, for completeness and healing and quick painless recovery. We had no idea how to help other than to pray, so we did.
Maybe she knew. Maybe she was anxious because God was whispering to her, the way He whispers to all of us, that things would change and not in a way she expected. Maybe she knew it was time. Now she knows for certain. She is in the arms of our sweet Heavenly Father now. She knows the love of her best friend Jesus better and more completely now than ever before.
I didn’t know Peg all that well, or for all that long really. But God did and does. And she knew Him here and knows Him now in heaven, for “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord”. I’m sure she is singing and dancing with all the friends and family that preceded her in death, and I’m glad to know this. She made an impact on our lives with her kindness and generosity. She found ways to give into our lives that we never expected and are very grateful for, and we are thankful to know her. She embodied the great commandment, “to love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself”. Peg, we miss you. We’ll see you soon….
