Cheryl

In October, I posted, asking for prayer for my friend, Cheryl, who had suffered yet another heart attack. Now, I come asking for prayer for her family, as she had one last night that she did not survive. Her husband, Guy and her children, Emily (14) and Matthew (9) are going to be lost without her. She was the center of their world.

My mind is assaulted with memories of times I have spent with Cheryl over the past 10 years. We would take our campers to the park about 2 miles from my house and camp for weeks at a time, content to let the kids ride their bikes all day and explore while we sat in the AC, playing Rummikubes and listening to Michael W. Smith. Cheryl needed to be in the AC and I was happy to oblige.

Cheryl first met most of the ladies at our church when I invited her to our ladies retreat several years ago. She went and led a craft time of making accordion scrapbooks with everyone. Later, when she and her family were looking for a church, they ended up at ours. She really enjoyed it there.

Cheryl loved scrapbooking. Given her health history, she said she knew she wouldn't live to see her children grown but they would have a record of their lives. She has many albums for each of them, chronicling every year of their life - one book, per year, per child. Not thrown together without thought books either. The kind that would win the 4-H fair awards. She was extremely talented.

She bailed me out of more than one sewing project I would attempt and I would repay her with cooking and carpentry. It's good to have friends who specialize in your shortcomings. And in my case, sewing was without a doubt, a shortcoming.

Cheryl and I were foster parents together and it was great to have her as a sounding board when I had a difficult child. She fostered for many years and adopted her two children from foster care.

Vicki and I spent the afternoon yesterday with Cheryl. We watched the kids skate and had a "scrap and yap" session. Vicki painted her fingernails, Cheryl worked on the kids' books and I yapped. We laughed together as we watched Sophie do the Hokey Pokey and the Chicken Dance.

On at least 3 occasions she pointed to Emily and said, "Look at her skate. She's so graceful and beautiful. I could watch her skate every day of my life." We all commented that if Matthew and Aiden didn't slow down, they would be calling on them to do so. It happened every week and this week was no exception. Cheryl noted that Ryan was almost fast enough to be getting called down with them.

Before Vicki got there, I told Cheryl two pieces of news yesterday afternoon that I hadn't shared with anyone around here but my family. I'm not sure why I did, but I'm very glad I did. She was so excited for us and her excitement was contagious. Our conversation left me feeling confident about the possible changes in our family's future.

As Vicki, Heidi and I sat for hours last night with her family in the hospital, it was as if time had frozen. There was no reason to stay, yet nobody could bring themselves to leave either. This time would be different than all the other times we had left that hospital. And things would never be the same again.

Cheryl's mom, Geneva, is one of the most precious women I know. She looked at me and said, "Cheryl told me she had a wonderful day. She kept telling me that she had a wonderful day." And she asked if I noticed Cheryl feeling bad.

I was so glad to be able to assure her that Cheryl had indeed had a wonderful day. She felt great when we were together. She was finally able to see well enough to drive herself after having eye surgery recently. She had been to the Farm Boy store and the bread store. I introduced her to the new Wild Cherry M&Ms and she loved them. They were going on her next Wal Mart list.

Her mom told me she had always wanted Cheryl to make it to 50. She almost did. She would have been 50 in September. Cheryl has always homeschooled her kids and I'm sure one of her sisters will step in and continue to do that.

Cheryl was unable to have children and having waited so long to adopt children, Cheryl loved her kids with a passion that you don't see every day. She was so proud of her kids and they knew it. They had spent the last several years watching her health decline and they were as devoted to her as she was to them.

My friend was a loving wife. I can honestly say I never heard her even once say a bad thing about her husband. Not once. She was a great friend and a wonderful mom. She loved her parents and her family -- and they loved her right back.

Above all that though -- Cheryl was a Christan. She loved God with all her heart and she put her trust in Him. Even though our hearts were hurting last night, there is joy in knowing that Cheryl is healed. She no longer has diabetes or heart disease. Her eyesight is perfect and as she is worshipping God today, she knows no sorrow and no pain.

Please keep Cheryl's family in your prayers and tell your kids today how proud you are of them. Cheryl would like that.