Life is life. It throws us punches and no matter how “evolved” we are, we can’t avoid them.

The task when confronted with a challenging situation, is to respond with grace, faith and unbounded love. Not always easy to do and often takes a boatload of praying to our angels for guidance and support.

My stepmother was diagnosed with a type of bone cancer last spring. She’s maintained a positive attitude and continues to live her life in service to the caretaking of my Dad who’s 91 and struggles with his own health.

Consistent with her eternal love of the Wizard of Oz series by L. Frank Baum, Clare has always believed the heroine wins. It seems, however, the angels have written a different ending. 

On Monday, we were told she had days, maybe a week to live. When the news hit, my dad was in tears and didn’t know what to do. I counseled him to go snuggle with her, cry if he needs to and talk about all the amazing memories they created in their 25 years together. He did.

She rallied on Tuesday and while unable to get out of bed, they continued to snuggle and talk. In fact, the aide reported they’d stayed up until 3pm talking and snuggling!

Yesterday was relatively the same although she wasn’t even able to sit up without a heavy duty dose of morphine. Another day in bed.

Midmorning, my father went downstairs to attend to some business and migrated over to the walkie talkie the aide was using. He listened in to my stepmother as she chatted with her niece and another step-daughter.

At one point he chimed in and they had a rather broken conversation via walkie talkie. I say broken because in their respective states there was a lot of “WHhhaaat?”

They did manage to sing a couple of songs over the airwaves. That was a treat to witness.

I guess when you don’t know how many days or even hours your precious loved one has left to live, you grab every moment you can. It didn’t matter that he’d just been lying in bed with her hugging and reminicsing for 2 days and that he’d be back upstairs again in an hour.

This morning, she awoke and came downstairs for breakfast. Without the liquid morphine!

We all smiled and welcomed her familiar reprimands like, “We don’t have room in the refrigerator for your food!” And “Why wasn’t I consulted about the hospital beds?”

She is a love with a BIG heart. With 9 stepchildren from 2 different families and 5 nieces that adore her, she also knows how to keep us in order.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring. We were all prepared to be wearing black this week or next. Maybe we still will.

 

I was given the message that this past Tuesday was a turning point. I’d thought it meant Clare would pass, but obviously that wasn’t the case.

So what did that mean? What do we do when we *think* the angels have given us erroneous information?

We surrender and trust the information was right and our filters somehow confused things.

It’s okay. We all do it, especially when emotions are high. The rollercoaster of death, disease, trials and tribulations can give full authority to the ego.

What we MUST remember, is that as we surrender – especially in the darkest, most intense times – to the knowledge that are angels are caring for us, we emerge in the light and we are reminded how much we are truly, deeply loved.

 

Many, many folks are going through difficult times right now. The energies are a little wild and it’s essential that we hold the faith that the angels are working 24/7 on our behalf. It may not always feel like it, but I promise you they are. I also promise that you will be reminded of their love and dedication to *you*, dear one, as you keep the love in your heart.

Thank you for listening. Angel hugs and kisses to you…

With love,

Rev. Elvia Nina