Tuesday, December 12, 2006

When it rains, it pours!

Well, it has been a while since my last post and a lot has happened! I feel a bit like the leaves must feel in autumn when the wind whirls them around in circles. Fortunately the circle are about to end for a spell, which is very exciting to me! Let's see, I wrote last just before Thanksgiving holiday. That went off splendidly and I was immediately swept up by the rushing torrent of finishing the semester in almost all my classes. Homework has been extreme and the one final that I took so far was also quite intense. I would have attempted to write more as it was all transpiring, but so much of my homework required writing that it lost its glamor. I'm over that a bit now and not so burned out on the typing.


This week has followed the maxim: "when it rains, it pours." I can't see that phrase without thinking of Diana Harper's father. He was an advertising genius and part owner a worldwide advertising firm. He introduced the Morton Salt logo utilizing that phrase to emphasize that Morton's salt would not clump in humid weather. The simple picture and phrase are still on all of Morton's salt products to this day (some 40 years later).
Anyway, the phrase does have a meaning before the advert and that is more what my week has been like. I had homework due Monday, so I was busy most of Sunday. Then I attended my last classes for this semester on Monday. I had little to do during them (they were needless reviews) and little to do in between them and after. I had Tuesday and Wednesday to study for my two finals today... that was sort of a waste because I didn't really need the time, so I did a lot of errands and tried to rap up a bunch of pending things and get the enrolling process started for the next semester. Apart from that, I had little important to do. This does not mean I did nothing, it just means that none of what I did was pressing. :) Okay, you get the picture.
Anyway, it has been a pretty low-key week until this morning when everything seems to be happening at once. Well, at least I have time to reflect on it and write about it here, but it has been a full day already and its only lunch time. Milla is in labor today and getting ready to have her baby. And at the same time, Mary Ellis died this morning after a valiant and very long battle against advanced bone and liver cancer. (These major things land on top of my exam day of course.) Oh, and someone stole a fur coat from our shop at Shopper's Forum Mall last night so I have been trying to help track down which one. Anyway, so many things at once it is a lot to reflect on!
Even with all those thoughts, Mary Ellis' passing away has remained at the forefront of my thoughts for a while now. I had a lot more contact with her while she was dying than I have ever had with a dying person before. I am thankful for it and at the same time I was unsure why God made it drag on this long. About two and half months ago, Mary and Eric Ellis came up here to Fairbanks for a checkup on her bone cancer. They got a report that the cancer had spread to her liver and that she had only a few days to live, at most. That sort of diagnosis is dreadful and heavy to bear! But both Mary and Eric maintained a good confession. Thinking the end would be any minute, they decided to stay at the Fairbanks house so they could be close to the Hospital for pain medication, etc. They were here in town just over a week. That week was both heavy and encouraging, both great and terrible and I would never trade it for anything else! Each evening we gathered for prayer and sometimes worship. Emotions were charged, but there was also a great peace and it was obvious that God was in control and that both Mary and Eric had surrendered even her life to His will. Mary was in a great deal of pain and living on morphine. She kept losing weight and was often unable to keep any food down. The end of her life seemed imminent even then. I would never have guessed that she would live another two and a half months. But God has a purpose. Still it was hard to see her suffer so much and see her literally shrivel in front of our eyes. After it became clear that she could get the same medical help in Delta, they moved back to the Upriver House to wait until the Lord moved.
All during this time, fall remained and winter lingered in coming. Transportation across the river got more and more difficult even as the days got shorter and shorter in favor of more darkness. About a month after Mary's prognosis, I had to write a haiku for my art class. I was unsure what to write about. However, as I was contemplating all that was happening both in the natural world and with Mary, I began to write. This is what came out:
The driest brown leaves
Refuse to fall from snowy
Trees – autumn lingers.
Of course, I've always known that I'm not much of a writer, but my teacher liked it and could sympathize with where I was coming from (I had to also write an explanation/interpretation).
Since then, autumn fled before the bitter cold and dark of Alaska's winter. We had weeks of -20 to -40 degree weather. Snow came and we finally got a winter road across the river. But Mary continued to linger. Her health got worse and worse and her body smaller and smaller. I visited her about two weeks ago with all the members of my household. We had a prayer and praise session during which most of us cried. She looked so frail and seemed already dead but her confession remained to glorify the Lord for his goodness and she wanted to reach out and touch all those around her. Always a servant, even until her death, connecting with other people was what brought her the greatest joy. At the close of this meeting, Emerson W. E. thought we should sing "Will You Dance" since Mary has always loved to dance and in remembrance of an opening she brought years ago about dancing before the Lord. We sang this song and the presence of the Lord was strong around us. Mary's countenance was bright as she imagined being able to dance again! Although her response was inspiring and impressive, the battle continue to drag on. Finally, more than two months after the doctors gave her a few days to live, Mary Ellis has passed on. It's odd, I have never heard of the death of a loved one without feeling grief and sorrow until today. When I got the news that she had finally moved on to be with the Lord, I was flooded with relief and almost rejoicing. The end had been in sight for so long and it seemed that its delay was causing more grief and pain than it could. I feel that this is the mercy of the Lord. Dance Mary, dance now that your eyes can see!
Well, I guess Milla just had her baby, a girl. How exciting! I can't wait to go see her but I have one more exam to take and only an hour to finish cram-studying for it. So, I guess Diana's dad was right, when it rains, it pours! Although death came today, it has no more sting and we can rejoice for the life that was lived and the life that is beginning. Before our eyes can see, we dance on this side of the sea.

1 Comments:

Blogger Joanna said...

Wow Josiah, I had no idea all that was going on. Sort of makes one's problems feel a little smaller. Keep in touch and keep writing.

I like your haiku :)

11:41 AM  

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