It's been a little over two years now since we said goodbye to our 21-year old daughter, Holly. Holly passed away on September 9, 2011 - only 2 and half months after battling a rare, very aggressive spinal cord tumor that caused her to become paralyzed just a couple of weeks after the onset of back pain.
Both my husband and I have experienced that same deep sadness - not only on those "anniversaries", but other times, too, when we are suddenly blindsided by grief. All of the hopes and dreams we had for Holly graduating college and getting married, evaporated the day she left us to go to heaven. Still, we cling tightly to the hope that we will see her again one day - her body healed--no more surgery, no more radiation treatments, no more wheelchair.
During Holly's illness, we witnessed the body of Christ through Neland Church members...through neighbors and friends....and people in the Grand Rapids community, who transformed our home into a wheel-chair accessible place for her after her treatment. And, after Holly left us for heaven, God still brings people alongside us on our grief journey. One of those people is Ruth Boven - pastor at Neland Church. She was a constant visitor to Holly and also uplifted my husband and I through some of our most difficult days in the hospital and multiple trips to the emergency room....and when a cure was not evident, Ruth reminded us, that we still can lean on that resurrection hope and have faith that we wiill see our precious girl again.
We have also found that blessing others, who have been touched by cancer, has been a balm to our grief. A group of us from Neland Church have cooked some of the community dinners for the residents of Hope Lodge - the facility where our daughter stayed during cancer treatment. We've also sponsored a team through Relay for Life the last two years - another way we can honor Holly and be an encouragement to others. We still miss our daughter terribly - we know that there will always be that "hole", but believe that God is using this tragic and untimely loss to bless others.
Posted in: Sarah's Death Four Years and Two Months Later
It's been a little over two years now since we said goodbye to our 21-year old daughter, Holly. Holly passed away on September 9, 2011 - only 2 and half months after battling a rare, very aggressive spinal cord tumor that caused her to become paralyzed just a couple of weeks after the onset of back pain.
Both my husband and I have experienced that same deep sadness - not only on those "anniversaries", but other times, too, when we are suddenly blindsided by grief. All of the hopes and dreams we had for Holly graduating college and getting married, evaporated the day she left us to go to heaven. Still, we cling tightly to the hope that we will see her again one day - her body healed--no more surgery, no more radiation treatments, no more wheelchair.
During Holly's illness, we witnessed the body of Christ through Neland Church members...through neighbors and friends....and people in the Grand Rapids community, who transformed our home into a wheel-chair accessible place for her after her treatment. And, after Holly left us for heaven, God still brings people alongside us on our grief journey. One of those people is Ruth Boven - pastor at Neland Church. She was a constant visitor to Holly and also uplifted my husband and I through some of our most difficult days in the hospital and multiple trips to the emergency room....and when a cure was not evident, Ruth reminded us, that we still can lean on that resurrection hope and have faith that we wiill see our precious girl again.
We have also found that blessing others, who have been touched by cancer, has been a balm to our grief. A group of us from Neland Church have cooked some of the community dinners for the residents of Hope Lodge - the facility where our daughter stayed during cancer treatment. We've also sponsored a team through Relay for Life the last two years - another way we can honor Holly and be an encouragement to others. We still miss our daughter terribly - we know that there will always be that "hole", but believe that God is using this tragic and untimely loss to bless others.