Farewell to Priscilla

I never met her, my friend's mother-in-law. I had heard about her, especially recently as she moved into a nursing facility and was learning to adjust to the myriad changes when one leaves the home of many years for a newly built single suite in a larger facility.

She was doing well, really. Though she took little interest in living a full life and taking care of all the details (even simple things like lunch and bathing), she liked her new digs and found herself at ease. What's not to like in a beautiful manor like St John's surrounded by other folk and given lots of independence?

Then one morning she couldn't move her legs. Uh-oh. A trip to the ER and somehow along the way, given her osteoporosis, a broken vertebrae. And pain. Overwhelming pain. Uncontrollable pain consuming her strength, depleting her will. She did not fight. Gently, having seen her children, she left this world for the next.

The service was simple and significant. As I heard the story of her life, I wished I had gotten to know her and to have had the honor of spending time with her. What a delightful person she must have been, and how obvious that her joie de vivre touched many lives. She traveled, took an interest in people - all people who came across her path - and developed hobbies and interests that were fascinating.

Not to mention raising three children as a single parent while working. And a degree from Cornell to boot. I am impressed and inspired by her life's story, by her ability to connect, to mentor, to encourage the best in others. By how much her daughter-in-law loved her and will miss her.

I decide to renew my efforts to reach out to my own daughters-in-law, to my grandchildren, to those around me. Surely I need to pull my head from the sand and enjoy people, celebrate them, see the skills they have, encourage them.

Thanks, Priscilla. Thank you for being you, the wonderful you that God created you to be, even to the end. Thank you for setting a stellar example of how to love despite the broken places of life. Thank you for loving and connecting with my friend and being such a large part of her world for so many years.

And for encouraging those of us who struggle against enormous odds to not just persevere, but embrace life, even those of us who did not know you directly.