Thinking of Mom...Praising Jesus

Thinking of Mom…Praising Jesus

On January 5, 2001, Mom went to be with Jesus.  To be honest, I struggled with her death and God’s timing. Throughout my life, my greatest fear had been losing my mom to death. Yet as I look back, I am convinced that her life and death was a study in the sovereignty and grace of God. Mom spent most of her life until she was married in a house on the edge of the West Salem community, along with her 9 siblings and parents. She met the Lord in assurance of Salvation at age 15 at a Youth for Christ rally.   Her first health crisis came in her preschool years and left her heart, already affected by genetic dispositions weakened. No one knows or can remember the exact nature of the illness, but terms such as rheumatic fever have been tossed around.  The next mention of her heart occurred as she entered nurse’s training when a doctor scoffed at her endeavors to complete such a program.  By God’s grace she was able to complete her RN, marry, and bear a child – me, with no ill effects on her heart.

I first learned of her heart issues in my early teen years when they tried various medications to help keep her heart in rhythm. When I was 14 years old, she had her first heart catheterization; that was in 1973, and the procedure was considered somewhat dangerous, requiring a stay of several days in the hospital.  She had had atrial fib on and off. The results showed that she had definite problems which they attempted to combat through medications.  As the years progressed, she was in atrial fib more often than she was in normal sinus rhythm. Yet she continued to work as an occupational health nurse.

In 1977, Daddy was out of town on a business trip.  Mom and I were home alone, when she began to feel really sick. Brave woman that she was, she drove herself, with me along for the ride, to the doctor who immediately insisted that she be hospitalized.  As it turned out, she had numerous blood clots in the thigh area of both legs. This required extensive surgery.  Recovery was slow, but she was able to return to work.  However, she would remain on both Coumadin and Heparin (twice a day by injection) until her death.

Her next health crisis occurred in 1982 with a ruptured ovarian cyst when she almost bled to death, before they did surgery.  Recovery took longer, but she returned to work, but finally in August of 1986—she went out on disability.  A couple of months later she wound up in the hospital with undiagnosed abdominal pain.  The doctors were hesitant to do surgery since her heart was so weak.  When they finally decided to so exploratory surgery, they discovered that her appendix had ruptured –  her referred pain had been deceptive.  Before they took her into surgery, the doctor gave her a 40% chance of surviving surgery.  However, by the grace of God, she defied the odds, though she remained on ventilator for several days.

As the years progressed, she had ups and downs, other hospitalizations that were attributed to a combination of congestive heart failure and pneumonia.  In 1997, she went on oxygen 24/7.  By 2000, her heart was severely and irreparably weakened.  There were numerous trips to the office of her cardiologist.  On the last visit in January, 2001, he told her, “Miriam, you have fooled us before.  No one, but God knows how much time you have left.”

It was only a couple of days later on January 5, 2001 that God called her Home.  I had worked part of a day that day.  My pastor came to visit and pray with us.  She was in bed and planned to take a nap before she ate supper, but wanted Daddy and me to go ahead and eat.  She never woke up from that nap – her next view was that of Heaven.

If I learned anything from this, it was that God’s timing is perfect.  Any of the previous health crises could have taken her to Heaven, but God held her in the palm of His hand and used her in sickness and in health.  She was a willing servant of Christ until He called her home and remains a testimony to the fact that God is good all the time.  I still miss her, but I anticipate the day when we are reunited in Heaven.