Dear Rob,
You would be 62 years old today.
When we met and started dating,
we talked about everything.
Even way back then,
when I was 25 and you were 34,
we talked about retirement.
Today, you would have hit that magic age of 62
when you could take early retirement
if you wanted to.
However, Luke being born when you were
one month shy of being 44 years old
pretty much guaranteed that
you would need to work to age 66 in 2025
and Luke was finished with college.
2025 would also be exactly 30 years in the ministry.
So that's what we had practically planned.
But we often talked
of that early retirement age of 62
and how it would be fun to retire then
if possible.
Especially if we had grandchildren by then.
I remember you saying that you couldn't wait
to spoil your grandchildren.
I remember laughing and telling you
that you already treated Luke like a grandchild.
So, we always kept that age 62 early retirement
possibility in the discussion.
I've thought a lot about that this past week
leading up to your birthday date.
Would we be retiring now?
Or would we be keeping on in the ministry?
If you had lived, how would your health be by now?
Would your scar tissued lungs that were so prone to pneumonia
have forced you into a medical disability by now?
Or, by some miracle, would you still be going strong?
And Covid.
Well, Covid would have most likely forced you
into early retirement.
In fact, in 2009,
without a pandemic in our world,
your doctor told you to retire
or change careers.
He said visiting the sick in their homes, in hospitals, in nursing homes
and being in groups like at church, in meetings, and at Annual Conference
was too much for your immune system.
His exact words were some that I have never forgotten hearing...
"You will die early if you don't get out of the ministry."
You died 2 years later at age 52.
But, even though I've thought this week about
that early retirement age of 62 that you would be today,
I haven't spent too much time dwelling on it.
Because,
the truth is,
I know you are totally healed now
and you are free from all of your issues.
And that
brings
me
peace.
There's a ministry joke that says,
"Work for the Lord.
The pay isn't much
but the retirement plan
is out of this world!"
So I am thankful that you are getting to enjoy
the retirement plan that you
got to take really early.
You didn't even have to wait until age 62!
I still miss you.
Your children still miss you.
That never changes.
And I remain ever so thankful,
as always,
that you loved me as long as you could
and that our love gave me our children,
my four joys!
Crystol, Anna, Wesley, and Luke.
With love,
Your Janna
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hope you enjoy the photos from last year's birthday post!
For those who might want to read what I've written before,
here is the link to past years' entries.
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