My dear sister called me just before a mission trip. She stated she had not been feeling very good but could not put her finger on anything specific. I had a sense it could be something needing surgery in her abdomen. I urged her to see her fine doctor in town. Julie had been vegetarian all her life and I figured she had something minor needing attention. When my other sister and I arrived at our destination in Southern Mexico for our mission, we had an email and phone message of disaster. My sis had cancer and it had spread everywhere. 

With heavy hearts and many tears my youngest sister and I made plans to help care for Julie as she reached her final stages of cancer. The whole team knelt and prayed for God to heal her if it was His will.

After the mission trip,  I was packing up our things for a move away from Portland. My younger sister was helping in the home of Julie and promised to call when help at night seemed necessary.

 I dreamed that I was attending a funeral or memorial service. I could not tell whose it was but when I awoke early, I gathered all the clothing of my four children that they wore to church. It took several hours because washing needed to be done. I made sure these and some play clothes were all packed ready to jump in the car to go help with the comfort care of my sis dying of cancer. I had just finished when the phone rang and my younger sis urged me to come.  God timed it for me.  I grabbed a very light electric heating blanket thinking it might be helpful on my dying sister. My dear friend Nancy Stagl took me up to Goldendale. My husband was 5 hours away working in an emergency room in Othello.

My husband and I arranged to stay in a near by motel with a little kitchenette  which we really could not afford. Those sweet motel maids watched me give my all for my sister and they cried with me at her death. They together bought me a bouquet of roses.

 We were experiencing heavy business losses and were a few days away from bankruptcy.  We trusted God would make up the difference as He always does when we put others first. God helped us through that crisis.  We used funds we desperately needed for home payments and bills and bought her a Jacuzzi to help her comfort level and joy those last days.   We did all we could think of to make sister comfortable. As I sang Psalm 23 to her, I saw a peace come over her. We all hoped she would be healed. She had such sweet courage and faith. I took the night shift and my youngest sister took the day time. Those nights were long but a privilege. I prayed all those nights as she slowly slipped away. That last night she kept telling me how much she loved me. I had arranged for her to have oxygen to help her labored breathing. Comfort was our goal. That last 24 hours she decided if God was not going to heal her she was ready to go to sleep till the great resurrection morning. I asked her to dictate letters to her children and I would make sure they received them.

I remember how she called me excitedly when Kami was born and told me that she did finally get her girl. I was having my third boy and she was sympathetic. 

I remember how that dear little Kami became very pale and her hemoglobin count dropped dangerously after a viral infection. They had come to me in Portland at my doctors office and I had rearranged all my patients so I could go with them to a cancer specialist. I feared she had a type of bone marrow shut down related to cancer. Through that night Julie kept waking me up asking me to check her sweet Kami. She just did not sound like she was breathing right. Her heart was irregular. Early the next morning my dear sister sang constantly in my  car to comfort herself and Kami. After a transfusion, her little girl did fine. What a scare we all went through.

We all loved to listen to stories at the fireside morning and evening. Daddy read the Bible in the morning and on weekends read missionary stories to us. Every evening mama read Bible lessons and nature stories and mission stories.

There were so many memories that flood my heart from child hood days.

Now my little sis was dead. Death is so ugly. Oh, Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

I know My dear Jesus cries with us. He was there as we grieved. He chose the fragrance of the roses to let us know He was there. We could not see HIM.

The church was packed with her friends who came to grieve with us.  A dear friend came to take me home to Portland to finish packing. God even sent many to help with that for I was so weak with grief. We lost our home that next week in bankruptcy and had to move into tents for over a year. I will share that story later. God is with us in every disappointment of this life.

We have this hope that burns within our hearts, Hope in the coming of the Lord... We believe the time is near when the nations far and near shall awake and shout and sing, alleluia Christ is KING.

My prayer is that by sharing these very sad experiences, you may gain hope if you have lost a loved one. When you see how God can comfort, perhaps you will think of ways that He reached out to you in your hour of need.

God takes no pleasure in the death of anyone. He created us with the plan of eternal life in His heart. Satan ruined the plan. Now for 6,000 years God has allowed sin and suffering to go its course. He is always near those who call on HIM. When it is all done, no one who is saved in heaven will ever be tempted. Death is too ugly. Sorrow is too deep a pit. Sin causes the most horrible results. Those that have chosen to be like Jesus and obey his commandments will be saved. They have seen the ugliness of sin and it will not ever come up again in heaven. There will be no more death nor sorrow or dying. But He promised that 6,000 years would be all the longer that sin lasts. The end is near. No one knows the day or the hour but we can tell it is near by the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation that are fulfilled. I highly recommend the study of these books if you have not already seen these Bible lessons on this web site.