Madeline137

Hello all,

It has been over a month since I’ve visited and blogged.  My life has been a whirlwind.  On July 2nd, my mother suffered a stroke from a blood clot that the doctors determined broke free from her heart.  The stroke occured in the brain stem and thalamus region of the brain.  She never woke up from the coma and died the morning of July 15th.  She was 84.  My emotions for the past month have been all over the map, but I am OK.  The Lord is good and His strength sustains me.  He was gracious enough to allow my mother to surface to a “semi-comatose” state for a couple of days.  Although she could not open her eyes or speak, she was able for a few minutes a day to nod her head yes or no in response to questions.    We were able to say our good byes, tell her that we loved her, and assure ourselves that she indeed knew the Lord and would see us again in Heaven.  I had prayed for her and Dad for years concerning their salvation.  I’m still praying for Dad.  She must have known for a few months that her time on earth was short.  In a casual conversation at her kitchen table about 2 months before she died, she told me that she believed in Jesus as her Lord and Savior, but she said, “I don’t know about your Dad.  He is a hard case.”  I just smiled and nodded my head in understanding.  While we were preparing for her funeral and searching her closets for an appropriate burial dress, we found a garment bag that she had put a dress in and labeled “my funeral clothes”.  She also told me a few months ago that if anything should happen to her, I was to look inside the Bible on the book shelf.  I looked and found an envelop with her obituary that she had already written concerning herself.  Although she was obviously prepared to depart this earth life, we were not ready to let her go.  She will forever be in our hearts and we miss her greatly.  However, the knowledge that I will one day see her again comforts me. 

This experience has made a deep impression upon me.  Earthly life is but a breath, a vapor.  I envisioned while at the funeral home that our life is like a current, a stream, always moving, never stopping, always heading in the same direction and ending in the same place - Death, death to our earthly life, but not quite the end of all things.  Earthly death is like metamorphosis.  In an instant we are changed from mortal into immortal.  The spirit life continues on.  If it is “in Christ” it evolves into greater and greater heights of glory. 

Our life on this earth is so short, and so many need Jesus.