I was just talking with Naomi about our deceased mothers and how much we miss them.

I keep thinking how much I enjoyed my mom's phone calls. She was faithful in keeping in touch, much more than I. So caring, she was.

What are your thoughts of your departed and sorely missed loved ones?

Last Sunday, I went to see my mother. She is dying and it could be 2-3 days or it could be 2-3 weeks. She fell a month ago and suffered 2 compressed vertebrae and now her body is slowly shutting down. Sometimes she's coherent and at other times in extreme pain and out of it. She no longer eats.

On Thursday I had to do the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I said goodbye and left for home because of work. Now, I'll only see her at her funeral.

Will she be missed? Greatly!

Oh, Darlene- is there no way you can take a compassionate leave and just go?

All last week I was in Alberta. I could just go but, we don't know how long it will be. It could be just a few days or it could be a couple of weeks. That is why I came home.

My dad died of lung CA when I was a senior in high school. I missed him then...a couple of years later, I bawled my eyes out when I was at PUC, cause I missed him more accutely...

Several years ago, my dad's dad [my grandfather] died when I was in Korea, as an SM... I miss him...

A couple of years later, I got married...and a couple of years after that, my dad's mom died. I miss her as well...

About 10 years ago, my mom's dad passed away. And last year, my grandmother died as well.

My mom is the only one left of my immediate family. And I feel a bit more alone now that I have gone thru a divorce and the kids have left home.

I think I will call my mom tonight....

AWW Darlene and Niel! If you lived closer...we'd include you in our family outings and things. I wish I could take the pain away from your losses! I can't wait for heaven where we will never have to go through painful experiences again!

I lost my dad about 12 years ago but he abandoned me as a child and we were never close. I lost my sister a couple years ago and even yesterday I teared up thinking about her. Another sister of mine now has cancer and is going through radiation treatment. I will be checking tomorrow to see how she is.

However most of my family is not close as we come from such a dysfunctional family we are all deeply scarred from our childhoods. I ave one brother I am very close to and the sister that died was very close too. There are 12 of us siblings in total and I am not close to any of the others primarily because of my faith they don't want much to do with me. I still send them pictures and home videos of the family on a regular basis. But in a way, the emotional separation is in itself like death in that it leaves me feeling alone. I speak to my mother a lot so that is good.

My Grandmother died early in the Christmas season of 1993. The following spring I received a series from an archaeologist that I had studied with and quote a lot, Dr. Jim Fleming, on the Bible and the feasts of the land.

One of the things that he pointed out that we have lost sight of with our ignorance of the feasts and the story being about half starting in the middle of one chapter and the rest in the next chapter (John 10 and 11) is that John tied the story of the raising of Lazarus to the story of Hanukkah, which of course falls in our Christmas season.

At Christmas time the loss of our loved ones are felt even more keenly, but Jesus preached a sermon that John was expecting us to think about every year durring that season: The story that Jesus is the resurection and the life and looking at the resurection and reunion with our loved ones.

We have a lot of traditions durring the Christmas season: besides the story of the birth of Jesus there is the tradition of home for the holidays, the gift of the magi, a christmas carol, for those of us who love "Your Story Hour" there is the sheaf of grain, not to mention Santa, Rudolf and Frosty. Since I've learned this the story of Lazarus and the coming resurection and looking forward to that reunion with Grandma has become as much of my holiday celebration as any of the rest of it.

(If any of you are good with music, I'd like to see some christmas songs that include the story of Hannukah, Lazarus, our loved ones who have fallen asleep and the grand reunion with the chorus looking at the birth of Jesus; and for it to be real Christmasie, like how Hark the Herald Angles sing, Mary's boy child, For Unto us a Child is Born and Joy to the World, maybe with sort of a Jewish musical sounding type thing: sort of a "Hava Nagala the Herald angles sing."

Another aspect is the power and gift of memory. As Luke the Drifter, Hank Williams had a version of "Beyond the Sunset" which had a line about the wonderful memories made and that "Memory is one gift from God that death cannot take away."

Our loved ones live in our memory, and our loved ones live in God's memory, and if you think about it, living in God's memory is in a lot of ways more alive than our conscious existance and how God can resurect us from the dead.

Enjoy your memories, and as the holidays approach in a few months spend time with the story of Lazarus and the birth of the resurection and the life.

Oh Darlene, I read your message with tears. So many recent memories. That is what happened to mother. She had experienced a very bad year and then the vertebrae issue. My heart goes out to you. Courage

Please know you are in my heart and prayers.

Naomi