Thanks to God

  On the cusp of Thanksgiving Day, I look back on a year that has been full of blessings and challenges. Last Thanksgiving I had just come home from the hospital with a hip replacement. Our daughter came for a week to care for me and brought a smoked turkey for a dinner with all of our children that were able to come. I had a month of therapy and recovered well.  After five years of being too stubborn to go and suffering for it, the new joint swings smoothly and is pain free. What a blessing!

   We went on with life until Easter when our children noticed Leroy was short of breath. Tests showed that the stents that were put in three years ago were clogged and he needed three bypasses. The surgery was done on May 23. I was glad I was back to normal and could take care of him when he came home. He went for a month of therapy three times a week.

   We had already planned to give up gardening but that was confirmation it was the right decision. Gerald came and seeded grass in the small remanent of what had once been a huge vegetable garden. With plenty of produce farmers in the area, we had no trouble finding fresh vegetables to eat. I did plant a couple tomatoes in a raised bed, but that was it.

   We had a good weekend with our descendants at a cabin in June. It happened to be Father's Day. For the first time since our children began marrying, all of them were with their father on Father's Day. How special!

    As the year went on, medical issues began piling up. There were the annual dentist visits and vision tests. Mine showed that the one lens I had been given in cataract surgery three years ago had clouded and needed to be cleaned. Add three more appointments to have that done. Having clear vision is a blessing!

    The end of August I had an episode that scared our children and landed me in the ER. I wore a heart monitor for a month after that. When it showed nothing needing immediate attention, I was cleared to drive again. I'm thankful for that because Leroy's health was slipping and we would be in trouble if I couldn't drive.

   He had the rare side effect of getting hiccups in the hospital after his heart surgery. Nothing the doctor tried has helped and six months later he is still hiccupping. It is wearing him out. He has an appointment next week with a neurologist and we are hoping he has some ideas that will help. Sometimes the hiccupping stops for as much as a week but then it comes back again.

   In October Leroy finally had a hearing test and got two hearing aids. He needed them for years already but kept procrastinating. Now I don't have to shout or repeat everything I say. That is a blessing!

    In November I had a CT scan. It is five years since my kidney cancer surgery and this was the last time I needed to have a scan. I have "graduated" and am a grateful cancer survivor! 

   There is another month left in 2025 and we will both have another birthday. It is a blessing the future is hidden from us. I rest in the fact that it is known to God and His ways are right and perfect. Whatever comes in the future, He is already there and will take us through just like He did this year.

It Might Have Been

 

   It's November 13 again. The day we remember Steve. He was born early in the morning of November 13, 1975, and lived with us for eighteen  years. Here he is on his 18th birthday in 1993.

   Seven weeks later, on January 2, 1993, Steve's life on earth ended when the passenger side of the car he was riding in slammed into a tree. That was thirty-one years ago. Today would have been his 50th birthday. What would he have done in these thirty-one years? Who would he have married? Would he have had children? People who are fifty have grandchildren. There are so many things we will never know. I often think of what John Greenleaf Whitter wrote in the poem Maud Miller.

For of all sad words of tongue or pen,

The saddest are these: "It might have been!"

  In my mind, Steve is forever eighteen. How would he look at age 50? AI took a guess with and without hair. He was born bald and didn't need a haircut until he was four. I think he probably would have had hair only a few years and been bald like his brothers if he was here today. But then, eternity is timeless and ageless so if people have hair in heaven it probably doesn't fall out. 

     Today we remember Steve and treasure the memories we made while he was still with  us. We rest in knowing God is good and makes no mistakes. Someday we will understand why Steve left time for eternity after eighteen short years on earth.