Category Archives: Dying

Sneak Peeks, THRIVE AND SURVIVE

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Several months ago, I blogged about my sister Mary and I writing a book for mothers of children from birth to age five. Though it took more than a decade to finish our project, God graciously allowed us the time we needed—despite Mary’s terminal cancer. 

Our planning and writing was a stop-start process that included endless interruptions but also the happiness of working together in the year before she went to heaven. And now, at last, the end-product is about to launch. It’s titled Thrive and Survive, Zero to Five, with subtitle, “2 sisters, 14 children and what we wish we’d known from the beginning.”

Mary was the one who brought structure to our ideas by outlining the book and creating the Table of Contents. She also wrote 58 sidebars that are sprinkled throughout—bullet-point extras not covered in the text.

The next series of blog posts on this site will offer sneak peeks into the content of Thrive and Survive, keyed to Mary’s sidebars. Then, come the end of August, the book should be available through Amazon and other sources.

Arriving at this point is deeply satisfying—and I hope Mary knows all about it. Her wisdom is laced through the book, and both of us share mothering  fails as well as successes. Our hope has always been that new moms won’t have to make the mistakes we did, and our prayer is that they will truly thrive in their efforts to do the most important job on the planet.  

“May she who gave you birth be happy.” (Proverbs 23:25 NLT)

Is that you?

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In August, my 12 grandchildren all came visiting, and for this grandma it was absolutely glorious. Normally these kids are separated by thousands of miles, and there are no words good enough to describe the deep satisfaction I felt when this pint-sized crowd came together.

Burned in my memory is the moment the two groups stood face-to-face for the first time – 6 from the UK, 6 from the USA. (Most were too little to remember a visit 4 years ago, and some hadn’t even been born yet.)

Thankfully, social media has allowed bits of communication between them over the years, but in that first meeting at my house this summer, the 12 of them stood looking at each other – in the flesh at last – and didn’t know what to say. It was a wow-moment I’ll never forget witnessing as they stood looking at each other without a word.

Then Skylar, the oldest at age 10 (on the right), pointed at one of her British cousins. “Are you Evelyn?” 

“Yes!” Evelyn said (on the left). “And you are…. Skylar?”

“Right!”

Laughter followed, along with further introductions, and as the encounter unfolded, I felt I’d been given a gift. The proof of its value was that I had goose-bumps on a hot summer day.

It didn’t take long for these 12 young relatives to link arms and run off together, ready to share in some brand new cousin-fun.

That night, while I was thanking God for these precious grandchildren, he gave me a special thought. One day I will meet Jesus – in the flesh at last – and there just might be some similarities to what I watched happen earlier that day as my grandkids met.

I already know some things about Jesus from Scripture, which is sort of like divine social media. I know him, but the two of us have never met in the flesh. And sometimes I try to imagine what that’ll be like.

The words to a song entitled “I can only imagine” are wondering the same thing:

Will I dance for you Jesus
Or in awe of You be still?
Will I stand in your presence
Or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing hallelujah
Will I be able to speak at all?

Though I’ve anticipated meeting Jesus my whole life, the only thing I know for sure is that when the moment comes, I’ll have goose-bumps…. no matter what the weather. When I stand in front of him, my guess is there will be a momentous silence like what my grands experienced. After that, our face to face meeting will surely prompt deep joy and maybe even some shared laughter.

And then, just like my 12, Jesus and I may hurry off together, arm-in-arm, ready to share in some brand new brother-sister fun.

“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)

A Few Words from Mary

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Today, September 24, marks two years since my sister Mary died. As is true for anyone who’s lost someone precious, I still experience strong frustration at not being able to talk to her. Having valued her opinions and ideas for 70 years, I feel a void because of her absence.

1973 setSince the early 70’s when we had our first babies, the topic we most talked about (for the next 45 years) was mothering. We shared the highs and – more importantly – the lows. We  hashed over problems, exchanged solutions, and recognized God’s ongoing partnership.

 

M.E.P.Thankfully, Mary left behind many of her opinions and ideas about mothering, and recently I found a sampling. During the years we worked together in the Moody Church nursery, our Nursery Committee put out a quarterly newsletter called the Crib Sheet.

Each issue began with an article called THE HIGH CHAIR written by our chairman — Mary. She shared what was important to her, and in the issue I just came across, she summarizes what she calls the “privilege” of motherhood. Re-reading it today was a satisfying way to remember and honor her:

Crib Sheet

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them!” (Luke 18:16)  Mary loved it when they came to her, too. Then one day Jesus asked Mary to come to him…. and she did.