Grief and Hope July 18, 2009

A friend of mine lost her mom suddenly to cancer this week.  I know there’s nothing anyone can say, really, but I remember a talk I heard not long after Mom was gone that gave me a little peace.  Maybe someone else could use a little peace, too.  So I’ll quote the words I found most meaningful:

I think of how dark that Friday was when Christ was lifted up on the cross….

It was a Friday filled with devastating, consuming sorrow….

I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest.

But the doom of that day did not endure.

The despair did not linger because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bonds of death….

Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces….

But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.

No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come….

Joseph Wirthlin, the speaker, passed himself just recently.  You can watch him speak by clicking on the follwing link, scrolling down to the section titled Saturday Afternoon Session, and clicking on the far right hand column under “watch.”  http://lds.org/conference/sessions/display/0,5239,49-1-646,00.html

You may also read his printed talk here: http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,49-1-646-11,00.html

Three Years July 3, 2009

Today marks three years without my mom.  Just before she died, I wrote her an email that she never opened.  I was reading it today: 

 ”Mom-

I know you feel broken beyond repair, that you can’t be of worth to anyone else, but … I thank the Lord you were well long enough to teach me…You taught me to always remember those others would forget, to embrace those no one else would, to respect those who were different from me.”

She did teach me those things.  I hope I remember them well enough to honor her.  Miss you today, Mom.

On a sad day July 3, 2008

Just remembering Mom tonight.  This is one of my favorite pictures of her:

The Anniversary June 13, 2008

The anticipation of the anniversary is almost harder than the day itself.  The heat, the upcoming holiday, all those same things we were doing before “the call” make me think of that day.  I feel like I’m walking through the fog from all the days that followed July 3, 2006. 

“You know your Mom’s laughing at you right now, right?” June 11, 2008

My husband only speaks the truth.  He said this while watching me corral our daughter into the bathroom to brush her teeth tonight. 

My mom used to joke that the ultimate “Mother’s curse” was that your child “have one just like you;”  I can’t count the number of times I was cursed growing up.  Well, Samantha and I are pretty different, but she’s certainly not lacking in the brains department, or in language skills, either.  I think you know the curse has served it’s purpose when in your head you are constructing a sincere apology to your parents for all the time it took to get you into the bathroom years ago.