Reflecting on Death
Rose of Sharon
“Are you afraid to die?”
I was speaking to my dear friend of twenty-eight years.
She blinked her eyes for yes, which was her version of a head nod these days.
We were alone in her house in the dining room that had turned into a makeshift bedroom as even using the chairlift to get upstairs was too difficult now with how stiff she had become.
Sharon was diagnosed almost two years earlier with ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. It’s an illness without a cure that renders the afflicted increasingly helpless until paralysis causes death.
Her decline was rapid and though her body could not be cured, her soul was healed. She had often struggled to keep up with three kids and a house and a job and, as a result, she frequently felt not good enough. Voila! She manifested a disease that made it impossible to keep up with anything, but she fully realized just how good enough she was!
Unconditional love poured in from a myriad of directions; and a more gracious, joyous patient I have never seen! She learned her value did not depend on what she could do but on what she was, a beautiful worthy being.
A multitude of people emerged to help the family through, cooking meals and driving…
