This afternoon I received word that my sister, just two years younger than me went home to be with the Lord. Sherry had colon cancer and it had gone into the lungs which made breathing very difficult. Last week Kentucky was hit by a snow storm that took out electricity to many and her apartment was one of the many without electric. This allowed her to enter the hospital where she did get a little relief with pain killers and removal of fluid. Yesterday she was moved into a nursing home as the care needed was greater than the family could provide. God saw fit to take her home. It was her wish not to enter the nursing home and it seems God granted her wish to not be stuck in a nursing home.
Sherry and I were the closest in age of the six siblings. We shared many experiences as we grew up. I liked to collect baseball cards and she liked to chew the gum. We both liked Pepsi, but she drank it warm and I had to have it cold. In the summer she wore sweaters and I T-shirts. Being only two years apart we almost always were in school together Irving Grade and Junior High School, I went Kindergarten through ninth grade and she Kindergarten through seventh grade. I got to go to the new Bloomington High School and she spent two years in the old high school called Bloomington Junior High School. Then my senior year she was a sophomore at the new High School.
We attended the same youth group activities and had many of the same friends. It was the fall of 1964 and both of us headed off to Bob Jones University for college. My brother-in-law and dad drove us down to Greenville, SC. Back in those days there were no Interstates and only limited four lane roads. The trip to Greenville was at least eighteen hours and winding narrow road through the middle of the Smoky Mountains was the most direct path. Sherry landed a job in the administration building as a telephone operator and I go to drive all over campus in a laundry truck picking up dirty linen.
I still marvel at that both of us were able to attend this college in spite of the fact that we were poorer than church mice. I had no idea how I was going to pay my tuition or dorm fees. I remember that I had $100 in my pocket when I arrived on campus. I am not sure that Sherry had that much money and know that she didn't have any money to pay her tuition or dorm fees either. Somehow she survived two years and I made it for one and one-half years.
In August of 2008, my oldest sister passed on leaving me as the eldest of the tribe, today I feel much older as my second sister has gone home.
It is reassuring that God makes no mistakes. He has appointed a day for each of us to meet our Maker and today was Sherry's appointed day. It is probably good that we don't know our appointed day, but it can be comforting to know that by placing our faith in the redemptive power of Jesus's death, burial and resurrection we can be assured that when our life is over we will be with Him in a place far better than even this beautiful earth in which we live.
I am reminded of a story about a doctor that had to give bad news to a older gentleman that his life was drawing to and end. The man asked the doctor, "Doc, you are a Christian, tell me what will I find on the other side?" The doctor was not sure how to answer the man and finally answered that he had no idea. As he spoke these words there was a scratching on the office door. He went to the door and opened the door and standing on the other side was his dog. As he turned back to the older gentleman he realized the answer to the man's question. The doctor then stated, "This is my dog, this is the first time he has been to my office and has never been in this room before. My dog never knew what was on the other side of the door, but he did know that his master was there and therefore he had no fear because he trusted his master. You too can know that on the other side of life awaits the Master and you need not fear."
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