Home at Last …
My heart is heavy this day
– our oldest son, Mark, passed away on Saturday, June 15th at the age of 43.
For those of you who don’t
know his story, his life was one of challenge and illness for over 30 years. He
was an amazing young man because he fought many battles that were never ending
and yet he held on to his belief in and love for God, never ranting and raving,
never blaming God or anyone else, just bearing up under one illness after
another.
This illness came upon him
rather suddenly; he had not been feeling well for a few days and was extremely
fatigued. He came to stay with us on
Tuesday night and on Wednesday night I took him to the emergency room. Early
Thursday morning he was being air-lifted to Las Vegas for emergency surgery to
remove extensive tissue damaged by a form of flesh eating bacteria. He was in a
medically induced coma after surgery to give his body a chance to recover but within
24 hours it became apparent that his kidneys, liver, and lungs were succumbing
to the massive infection. He passed away
peacefully at 9:30 AM Saturday.
Mark always felt that he
would not outlive his parents and often told me not to cry when he died because
he was going to a better place where there would be no more tears, no more
pain, and no more sorrow – and that God would have a job for him to do in the
Kingdom. The tears flow because they
cannot be helped; they flow for our loss.
But we know he is at peace and … finally “home at last”.