AN ANNIVERSARY OF SORTS
Today would have been Glenn's and my 36th wedding anniversary. To celebrate it, I dreamed of him all night. You know those dreams where he is there but doesn't talk and then all of a sudden he is gone and you wake up in a panic thinking he just left you. Too many of those dreams coming up to this day. I think they will go on for some time more as December is "The Month" for our family. His father passed away two days after our wedding. He was healthy when my mother-in-law left here to go to Calgary for the wedding and by the time she got home, he was gone. So my husband left for the funeral the next day (Tuesday) and arrived back on the Friday. I felt he had been through a lot during that week, so I arranged for him and I to spend the weekend at a local hotel. No sooner did we check in, than I called my sister to check on my two year old son, and low and behold, my sister-in-law had passed away. My brother came home from work to find her sitting on the couch where she had sat down to have a cup of tea and then died. So we chose to give up the weekend to help out as much as we could. They did not have any children and she was the love of his life so it hit him badly. On the Sunday, Glenn went back to work and had an accident. His forklift skidded on some ice and his hand got caught in between the forklift and some racking. So he was off work for a month. Things went smoothly for a few weeks then in January, I lost a baby. That was the beginning of our marriage a marriage blessed with fire. For those of you out there that think you can't possibly go through anything like that, well God says you can and you will and I am living proof of it. By the way, Glenn's sister introduced us on July 1st of that year and we married December 4th. No one can tell me that there is no such thing as love at first sight. God had it planned all along and I am so grateful for the husband he picked out for me. Glenn was kind, caring, gentle, a great father, grandfather, a hard worker and a thinker. I did not know of the influence he had here on earth for God until his passing and to this day, I am amazed at how God used a down to earth, quiet guy like my Glenn to further his kingdom. Thank you Lord!
The debacle of December did not end that year. Sure we had a few good Decembers, but a few years later my sister-in-law who lives in Texas, came home from work on Christmas Eve to find her husband and four month old son murdered. Of course as in a lot of investigations, the police thought she did it and had put her in jail until they checked out her story. In the meantime 3 other people in the same area were murdered that night. They realized they had a real killer on the loose and kept her in jail over Christmas for her protection. That was a complete shock and still bothers us all to this day. I won't go into the details. She only vaguely knew this fellow.
Fast forward a few years and Glenn's mom goes to the hospital and they find gangrene in her. They bring her into a hospital in Winnipeg to investigate further. She has a problem with her gall bladder, but not bad enough for surgery. There is much prayer sent up on her behalf and when they investigate the gangrene further, they can find none. She starts feeling better and they decide the next day they will send her back to her local hospital. She never made it through the night - it was her time.
That is our story of December and how precious Christmas is for us and how every year we are reminded in a real way just how much God gave to us by sending his son.
Blessings
Jean
Today would have been Glenn's and my 36th wedding anniversary. To celebrate it, I dreamed of him all night. You know those dreams where he is there but doesn't talk and then all of a sudden he is gone and you wake up in a panic thinking he just left you. Too many of those dreams coming up to this day. I think they will go on for some time more as December is "The Month" for our family. His father passed away two days after our wedding. He was healthy when my mother-in-law left here to go to Calgary for the wedding and by the time she got home, he was gone. So my husband left for the funeral the next day (Tuesday) and arrived back on the Friday. I felt he had been through a lot during that week, so I arranged for him and I to spend the weekend at a local hotel. No sooner did we check in, than I called my sister to check on my two year old son, and low and behold, my sister-in-law had passed away. My brother came home from work to find her sitting on the couch where she had sat down to have a cup of tea and then died. So we chose to give up the weekend to help out as much as we could. They did not have any children and she was the love of his life so it hit him badly. On the Sunday, Glenn went back to work and had an accident. His forklift skidded on some ice and his hand got caught in between the forklift and some racking. So he was off work for a month. Things went smoothly for a few weeks then in January, I lost a baby. That was the beginning of our marriage a marriage blessed with fire. For those of you out there that think you can't possibly go through anything like that, well God says you can and you will and I am living proof of it. By the way, Glenn's sister introduced us on July 1st of that year and we married December 4th. No one can tell me that there is no such thing as love at first sight. God had it planned all along and I am so grateful for the husband he picked out for me. Glenn was kind, caring, gentle, a great father, grandfather, a hard worker and a thinker. I did not know of the influence he had here on earth for God until his passing and to this day, I am amazed at how God used a down to earth, quiet guy like my Glenn to further his kingdom. Thank you Lord!
The debacle of December did not end that year. Sure we had a few good Decembers, but a few years later my sister-in-law who lives in Texas, came home from work on Christmas Eve to find her husband and four month old son murdered. Of course as in a lot of investigations, the police thought she did it and had put her in jail until they checked out her story. In the meantime 3 other people in the same area were murdered that night. They realized they had a real killer on the loose and kept her in jail over Christmas for her protection. That was a complete shock and still bothers us all to this day. I won't go into the details. She only vaguely knew this fellow.
Fast forward a few years and Glenn's mom goes to the hospital and they find gangrene in her. They bring her into a hospital in Winnipeg to investigate further. She has a problem with her gall bladder, but not bad enough for surgery. There is much prayer sent up on her behalf and when they investigate the gangrene further, they can find none. She starts feeling better and they decide the next day they will send her back to her local hospital. She never made it through the night - it was her time.
That is our story of December and how precious Christmas is for us and how every year we are reminded in a real way just how much God gave to us by sending his son.
Blessings
Jean
1 comment:
Jean, I hope when my time comes I go fast like that.
I worked for an attorney for awhile, many years ago. He did a lot of wills and trusts and we were always busiest in November and December. It seemed to us that more people died during those months than any other. My boss said it had been that way all the years that he had been in the business. He said he didn't know why it was that way, except that maybe the change in the weather, or the holidays, was added stress if they were already fragile. --Ilene
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