The 19th - Dying Comfort

My mom just called me.

She had just called her friend, Patricia (see Thresholds - a previous post - i will learn to link them some day).

Patricia is not eating any more, she is very weak and, while briefly on the phone with my mother, 

Patricia could barely speak.   

When my mother called me, it was obvious that losing her friend is becoming very real to her because Mama, through her tears and emotional pain, could barely speak to me either.

And, as hard as I've tried to ignore it, the fact that today is the 19th has been slapping me in the face just like breaking waves in the ocean.  As hard as I try not to look at the clock, when I do happen to see the time, my memory - UNBIDDEN - transports me back to what I was doing 10 months ago at that exact time on the 19th.  

And then sorrow rules my thoughts.

Stark reality - realized again on the 19th.  

For me, 10 months ago, when I knew my Rob was dying.

For my friend, Marisol, 2 months ago when she knew Richard's prognosis.

And today, for my mom - when she talked to her friend.

My mother told me, though, that she reassured Patricia that "there's a verse in the Bible that says that 

underneath are God's everlasting arms - 

so whether we are in Heaven or on Earth, 

His everlasting arms are holding us."  

What comfort.

And what comfort THOSE ARMS have been for me over the last few years and especially since last September.  

To know that Rob - in Heaven and I - on Earth - have been...

...ENVELOPED IN THE ARMS OF GOD - IN GOOD TIMES AND BAD.