Week 47

Being present when someone enters or leaves mortality is a tender and sacred experience.  We had that experience on Thursday morning.  Just after 7 am I got a text from the wife of the man in the branch who has had leukemia saying he was in the hospital following a surgery, but had been non-responsive for several hours, and could Elder Kerr come give him a blessing.  We hurried to the hospital, and when we entered the room the nurse was checking his vital signs and was clearly concerned.  Then Kerby gave the man a beautiful blessing.  Shortly after, the brother coded and they rushed a crash cart down the hall.  Then the wife had to make the decision whether or not to resuscitate him.  I held her while she said that he wouldn't want that, after which he breathed a few more breaths then passed away.  After some tearful moments, Kerby gave the wife a beautiful blessing, and we stayed with her until her daughter and son-in-law arrived.  Again, it was a sacred experience.

Now here is the "tender mercy" backstory.  On Wednesday our car was really acting up when we started it--four different times it made awful noises and had a hard time starting.  We called the service garage for an appointment, and they said to bring it in at 7 am the next day.  On Thursday morning Kerby was going to wear his jeans and a polo shirt to just run it over to the garage, but instead he came out in a shirt and tie--he said, "I just felt like putting my tie on."  He left, and I planned to take a shower, but instead got busy on the computer for a few minutes.  He called to say the car was acting perfectly and so he was on his way home, since the mechanics had nothing to test.  Immediately after that I received the sister's text, and I called Kerby to tell him.  I quickly put on some clothes, met him in the parking lot, and we went to the hospital.  The tender mercy is that normally we are at the gym without our phones at that time of day, and had that been the case we wouldn't have gotten the message until quite a while after the brother passed away.  (And our car continues to operate normally!)

The former branch president and his wife flew in from Idaho on Friday, and we met them at the funeral home where he and Kerby dressed the man in his temple robes.  Kerby and I are saying the opening and closing prayers at the memorial service tomorrow evening. 

Compared to that, nothing of much importance happened this week.  We were able to find a couple of people home when we went visiting in Marksville.  Cotton fields are still pretty as the blossoms continue to open. We stopped in "our" cotton field, and took this picture of baby cotton bolls:

Amazing that we wear what's growing inside of these!

We continued south to Simmsport, and saw lots of corn harvest on the way.  Just a few months ago we drove by these very fields when the corn was less than a foot high.