Blessings in the midst of trials

This has been a long day.
It started with the memorial service for Ellen at 10:30 AM. Audrey officiated and I did the memorial address. In it, I mentioned one of the blessings of the last week - it was that Ellen passed away on Sunday May 31st. She was determined to hang on until Samantha graduated from high school. She did on Saturday night, they saw the video and Sunday morning she died. At the time she was at home and the house was full of kids. This was how she would have like it. A blessing.

I came home at 10:30 to a number of condolence cards. And I find it has been so meaningful to read them. Now that I am on the receiving end of cards like this, I realize how much it means.

One of them said:
"May it comfort you to know that death cannot diminish the important ways your loved one touched your life,
that grief cannot take away the happiness you shared,
that sorrow will fad in time....
but love remains forever."
It DOES comfort me.

Another said
When we lose someone we love, things change...
life changes
But the love in our hearts grows stronger, deeper,
even warmer than before."
This is so true

Rosalea from Bowling Green wrote and said
"Just remember that sisters are forever, warm memories may sustain you, your faith is strong."

And Sister Carol Ann from the Wellstreams program sent a card that said
"Your sister Ellen will be remembered by the Dominican Sisters at the celebration of the Eucharist in the Congregational Chapes of St. Mary of the Springs."
And it just touches me, all of it.
Cards are a blessing

One more trial with an amazing blessing contained within. We all drove home from Chicago today. Chuck and I went through Toledo and Kacey, Marnie and Audrey drove through Indianapolis. Audrey was spending the night with a friend before going on to Nashville for a week fo church camp. They had an accident and the other car was totaled and theirs is no driveable. The blessing - and it is a great blessing - is that they were not hurt. Not hurt. Everything else pales in comparison to what might have happened.

I thank God - as tired as I am right now - for God's perfect timing, for friends that care and send cards and emails, and for accidents that hurt property and not people.

God is good, all the time.