Blog 2455 – 07.15.2022
Ten Years Ago Today
I knew that I was about to become a member of a club no parent ever wants to join, Parents Who Outlive Their Children. Ten years ago today my daughter Emily Elaine had her last birthday in a hospital in Virginia where she had been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. Five days later she was gone.
Many Christians, Believers, and Optimists take comfort in the Bible Promise, “The Lord will not burden you with more than you can bear.”
I count myself in the later, but let me tell you losing a child is a most difficult loss and one if not the heaviest of burdens to bear. Many good marriages have not survived such a loss and many a mother or father has cashed in their chips at being dealt such a hand.
I do not consider myself stronger, braver, or wiser than the average bear, but I do try to see the gift in every situation. The immediate gift of my Emily’s death was that her pain and suffering were over. Once when she was three she jumped off her bed and landed on a toy that cut her upper lip and I had to rush her to the Emergency Room for stitches. They strapped her into a contraptions that held her arms and hands to her side and she looked terrified as they stitched closed the cut on her upper lips. I watched helplessly, my own eyes full of love and tears for her.
Had she lived, my Baby would have turned forty-two today. Ten years without her have made the thirty-two with her even more precious. Focusing on all the gifts she gave me has outshined the darkness of that day.
Happy Birthday to my darling Emily Elaine.
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White
A Duet With My Baby
theencouragingword 