Your outpouring of love and care during our time of deep sorrow is so appreciated. Pastor David and I have read every email, card and letter -- and your prayers and support are bringing us comfort and helping us navigate our grief. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your compassionate hearts.

God has called home two of our loved ones. We are grieving the loss of Pastor David’s lovely mom and also our precious beloved kitty-cat Itty Bitty. Our senior kitty Elsie – the one with health issues -- is still with us (and doing better) so it was completely unexpected to lose our plump and lovable Itty-Bitty (also a senior). These are significant losses for us, and anyone who has lost a loved one knows the depth of this pain.

All life comes to an end. It hurts so much when life ends because God did not originally create death as a part of life. Our pain is a testament to the life lived. Some deaths are expected, some sudden; some are “natural;” others tragic. Each life is precious; each death poignant. No one truly knows the grief of another, even in similar circumstances.

Many of you have told me your own stories of sorrow: parents dying under the tyranny of inappropriate “medical” “care”; adult children and spouses playing Russian roulette by getting the poison needle; you being forced out of your job after years of dedicated service; you being denied the right to medical care, to travel, or to visit family members just because you do not belong to their cult of fear.

My heart breaks for you, for all of us.

“Why me?” “Why this?” “Why now?” are the questions that come up, understandably, agonizingly; yet unanswerable. Our human mind wants to make sense of these tragedies, to have a reason why the thing that happened, happened.

Those with faith, like me, cling to the hope that one day all that is unknown will be known. All the questions will be answered; all the tears wiped away.

In the meantime, here we are, experiencing all that life brings, including the sorrows, the traumas, the heartache, the tears. And through the tears, a longing for peace, for understanding, for justice, for relief. At least that is how it is for me.

For some reason, God has put us here to witness it all. To experience it all. To feel it all. To LIVE through it all and to keep going. Thank goodness “all” includes the joys, the love, the challenges, and the victories as well.

For now, I leave you with hope. But hope alone is not enough. Hope for me is the anticipation of better days ahead, of brighter days ahead; but it is not a passive hope. I work at hope day in, day out, all day, every day. I consciously choose to focus on the love I share with those here and those departed.

Proverbs 3 is a favorite, and I share it here:

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding.
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.
⁷ Be not wise in your own eyes;
    fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
⁸ It will be healing to your flesh^[b]
    and refreshment^[c] to your bones.

With deep appreciation for your prayers and your beautiful words of comfort and support,

Peggy & Pastor David

P.S. I rescued my beloved Itty-Bitty and Elsie as months-old kittens in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I went to New Orleans to rescue the animals that had been left behind. (This included using crowbars to break into homes where animals were languishing weeks after the evacuation when people had not returned home for their animals. It was heart-breaking.) Elsie and Itty-Bitty were found by someone else as stray kittens and were set to be euthanized as the huge temporary animal shelter at the county fairgrounds was being shut down. And there they were in their little cage. I asked, “What’s to become of these kittens?” And I was told, “Nobody has come for them. They are going to be destroyed.” By the grace of God, I was able to bring them (and several other languishing kittens and cats) back to California to find permanent homes. When I am gripped by sorrow and despair, I remember that we have enjoyed nearly 17 years of love and companionship that might not have been possible at all.