Article July 18, 2005 Issue

LIFE GOES ON

By Marlene Chatterton

An incident at a family reunion enlarged my understanding of life, as no other event has. In 1998, several of us were standing near a picnic table, talking, when my mother suddenly collapsed. I was standing next to her and caught her as she fell.

She was a tiny woman, within a few years of 90, and so slight that I could easily lower her to the picnic bench behind me. I sat down with her propped against me and turned with all my heart to God, praying to know what to do.

A moment after we were seated, she said in a small, sad voice, "Dad wants me." She was referring to my father, who had died over 30 years earlier. Although I could feel no life or movement in her body, I distinctly heard her words and sensed she was at the point of either passing away or staying with us. I put all of my trust in God's power to aid her in whatever way she needed at that moment.