Good morning…
As we prepared to celebrate my husband Steve’s thirty years of service to the Lovett School community, I found our wedding photo album from 1987. I snapped this photo of the photo of my dad walking me down the aisle. I was 24 years old. He was 51.
Fast forward to today, September 11th, a day saturated with grief from this tragic date in 2001. Since it will always be remembered as a hard, heavy day, it seemed somehow fitting for my dad’s doctor appointment to be scheduled on 9/11. Today, as I am 61 years old and my dad is 88, our family will learn if his active cancer spots are contained inside his prostate or if cancer has spread to other parts of his body. A treatment plan will be laid out for my dad, who is the primary giver of care for my 87 year old mom.
Unexpectedly, today is made harder and heavier as my mom suffered another fall on Sunday night, the night I returned home from my visit with them in Ohio. She bruised her right cheek and “cracked” her right hand, requiring it to be splinted by the doctor. The splint will make it more difficult for her to eat, to use her walker, to get in and out of the car, to perform basic daily tasks. Deep sigh.
So, with the slowly waning moon in middle of this dark night, I lift prayers for those who are missing loved ones lost instantly twenty-four years ago today. I lift prayers for my parents and my siblings as we process as a family the impact of my dad’s cancer treatment. I lift prayers for the wife, the young children, and the many friends of Charlie Kirk, whose life was cut short by a political assassination yesterday. I lift prayers for all of us who are granted the privilege of aging into new life phases, aging into new life phases with God. For every single one of us, amid life’s hard and heavy, may God be our trustworthy source of love, peace, and strength.
For us there is only one God, and he is our Father. All things came from him, and we live for him. And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things were made through him, and we also have life through him (1 Corinthians 8:6, ERV).
On this September 11th, may we celebrate God’s gift of eternal life, on earth and in heaven.
…Sue…
P.S. A friend wrote me these touching words this week.
Hello, Sue.
This Thursday will mark 24 years since the horrific terrorist attacks in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania that claimed the lives of 3000 innocent people, and shattered the lives of countless brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers. I can think of no better way to honor the memory of those who perished that day, and those who continue to mourn the loss of their loved ones, than to read aloud the poem, “The Names,” by Billy Collins. He read it to a joint session of Congress on September 6, 2002.
We shall never forget what happened that fateful day 24 years ago, even as we pray something like that will never happen again.
