The Passing

   I am not sure what to do.  My friend Lisa lost her father to cancer early this morning.  He passed away at 1:25 am.  I never met Lisa's father, but considering the kind of person Lisa is, he must have done a great job as a father.  His cancer diagnosis was realized only a couple of months ago, well after my initial rounds of chemotherapy were completed.  Her response to my e-mail this morning was so typical of her heart:

Thank you so much, Phil! You are so lovely to email me when you yourself are fighting such a tremendous battle.  I have been on my knees for you often!   Your strength in Jesus has helped me so much through this.  I've been walking through my days, first singing "one day at a time, sweet Jesus" and then "....every hour I need Thee...". He is always there.  Always ready to carry me when I can't bare to walk.  I can't wait to give you a giant hug!  

   So I am not sure what to do.  I would like to run out of this hospital right now and find Lisa and claim that hug and share a good cry with her.  I would like to tell her it will all be alright, when I know she knows it will be, even though right now it is hard to imagine that everything can have meaning in life again.  I would like to go to this man's funeral service, because he and I have shared something (besides being blessed by his daughter) that makes us a part of the same team.  Cancer is a unifier. I would like to do and say and eat and escape and live and hike and camp and thrive and laugh and...but I can't just right now.
  What should I do right now?  Pray...and wait.  And Lisa, I will get that hug soon enough.  I will give you a call as soon as I get out of here.