Dearest Don & Helen,
It really hit me hard, Wednesday, when Paula Hayes called me. I have had two days to reflect on my relationship with both of you and Kathy. I remember the going to McKenzie, TN to pick you up and bring you to East Texas. Being told in McKenzie, that I was not liked nor welcome (jokingly but with some truth) and still invited to dinner. I know how they felt. And then on our trip to White Oak, picking at Kathy on the way, when finally in Texarkana, she got in the Uhaul truck to ride with me the rest of the way to White Oak. As you know Kathy, has worked for me on two different occasions, we have had many conversations about life and our families. My heart aches with yours at the lost of Kathy's smile and wit she shared with many of us as we worked together.
We both have lost our parents, and we supported one another at that time. Don, Helen, I can not imagine what it is like to loose a child. I can only point to God's love and 1st Corinthians 13 the Love Chapter. Nothing can fill the hole in ones soul left by the death of a loved one. Time, tears, and talking can make it smaller. Memories will make you warm all over, BUT, the Love you have shared is a reservoir that is never emptied, never broken, and never completed until we join her. This is something I received from Rev. Paul Allen, author is unknown, but it speaks to us.
So we ask, What is Dying? Let me suggest it’s something like this:
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!”
“Gone where?”
Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!” there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: “Here she comes!”
And that is the way it is with dying.
We will see one another again, we will see Kathy's grin and sparkling eyes as she greets us when we too cross that sea and hear Kathy's glad shout; “Here they come!”
Don, Helen, we put our arms around you with hugs and kisses to support you in your sorrow. LOVE,
Roy & Barbara
