When You Are Down... Looking Up

Today my sister and I went to visit Celeste at a Hospice facility. As usual for the typical Celeste style, she lifted us up and made us smile and laugh.

She made fun of her drainage tubes, her IV's and her frailties. Then she tried to gross us out by showing us that the food she just sucked down was now traveling into the tubes but she forgot I am a nurse so it takes a lot. And I never heard my sister fall out and hit the floor so she must have hung in there.

Then the conversation turned more serious and she talked of the inevitable. "Please take care of Dale."

I couldn't help but share with her what she had meant to me and what a wonderful example of God's love I saw shine through her. I felt blessed to even have been a part of her life.

She looked up and around the room. She smiled. "All this love. I have been so blessed. God is beautiful."

On our way out, Dale said, "Her life was not in vain, for I have come to know our God intimately. I wouldn't trade that."

Saying "Good-bye" when you know the next visit together will be in the eternal...leaves us with emotions of bittersweetness.

God Bless you Celeste and your life... We love you...