We Can Survive Tragedy with Faith

Looking back can often take your breath away, when you realize what you have endured. Before our youngest son's accident we had managed to make it through other difficult situations. One with our daughter, who we discovered had been attacked and then threatened with harm to her family if she sought help or told anyone.  She left to college without telling us what had happened. At the time Patrick was serving as the Bishop of our congregation and when she finally told us what had happened, I worried more about him trying to find the perpetrator. When he came home late from a church meeting, I checked the guns.

 The sadness finally faded a little  bit when a friend in the FBI found the perpetrator was in jail and would be there for a very long time.  I  remember asking the Lord for strength and asking Why? Why when we have been striving to live the gospel and sacrificing, "Why are we having to suffer such a trial?" I got an immediate answer, It was not a lightening bolt that hit me and left a scar like Harry Potter. No that did not happen, but as soon as I asked the question, I was filled with such a peace that my knees felt weak and I dropped down to hear a voice in my head. "If you keep my commandments ye shall not fear." My eyes filled with tears and I felt like I was wrapped in a warm blanket of comfort.

 A few years later when my much too young husband had a heart attack. He had been home from the hospital after open heart triple by-pass surgery for only a few weeks; We took a walk down the sidewalk in front of our house. He struggled to make it past a few houses before needing to turn back.  And I wanted to cry but without even asking a question, I felt that warm comfort wrap around me and I was filled with the peace of knowing he would heal. And we would be able to move on to another part of our life together.

Then came the tragedy of our youngest child's accident and not knowing if he would live or die. This tested us again, to trust and have faith. He became the boy who lived; not like Harry Potter, (but he has plenty of scars.) We watched him slowly heal and become a kind and caring man with a beautiful wife and three boys of his own. Since then we have been able to help other parents who had to say goodbye to a loved one all too soon; we understand the pain they feel.

 A monkey wrench of life landed once again with an aneurism at the top of Patricks' well worn heart and we dodged that one too.  Yet sadly, I can see the end of our puzzle, the story told. I hide the last piece of our puzzle so I can be the one who ends the picture and then others can hold it up and see our journey, our love, our struggles and yes, that we tried as weak mortals do, to keep our end of the contract, so we can be together with those we love for eternity.