Loss!

Our daughter Lauren has been home from college about 2 weeks now. She wasn't suppose to start back up at her old job ( at a book store in Bellevue ) until the fall. But on Monday she got a call, saying that they needed her right away. Then they explained that one of her co-workers had passed away over the weekend. We still don't know how she died, but she was a wife and a Mother and she was only in her late 30's or early 40's. What a tragedy!

Then a dear friend of mine called this week and told me that her Grandmother had passed away. Her circumstances were a lot different. She had lived a good long life and even though her death was a surprise, she was more than ready to go and be reunited with her sweet husband who had been gone for quite some time.

Death and trials, disease and struggles are tough on anyone. I am always interested in how people make it through times like these? I read this sweet quote today and then I was reminded again, how people not only make it through times like these, but become stronger and more faithful because of it.

"CHRIST WALKED THE PATH EVERY MORTAL IS CALLED TO WALK SO THAT HE WOULD KNOW HOW TO SUCCOR AND STRENGTHEN US IN OUR MOST DIFFICULT TIMES. HE KNOWS THE DEEPEST AND MOST PERSONAL BURDENS WE CARRY. HE KNOWS THE MOST PUBLIC AND POIGNANT PAINS WE BEAR. HE DESCENDED BELOW ALL SUCH GRIEF IN ORDER THAT HE MIGHT LIFT US ABOVE IT. THERE IS NO ANGUISH OR SORROW OR SADNESS IN LIFE THAT HE HAS NOT SUFFERED IN OUR BEHALF AND BORNE AWAY UPON HIS OWN VALIANT AND COMPASSIONATE SHOULDERS."  ~ Jeffrey R. Holland

So for now, I will keep both of these families in my thoughts and prayers ...and hope that they can find peace and healing from our Savior. It makes me realize, not to take my relationships and time with my loved ones for granted. I need to say 'I LOVE YOU' more often! So good night dear friends, thank you for being such an important part in my life. And please remember you are LOVED!

"To live in hearts we leave behind
Is not to die."  ~Thomas Campbell

"Life is eternal, and love is immortal,
and death is only a horizon;
and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight." ~Rossiter Worthington Raymond

"For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity."  ~William Penn