It was almost summer break and the last time I’d be in elementary school. I had just received my 1999 year book and I was so excited to flip through it and get it signed. A couple of highlights from the year came on Hippie Day when my mom went over the top on my costume and confused everyone (including teachers) into thinking I was a girl. The second memory came from a play that I was in where I played a “hangry country uncle” at a Thanksgiving dinner. My line? “WHEN DO WE EAT?” Oh! But how could I forget when I played Charlie Brown in the Christmas play “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown?” It was my first leading role and one that I’ll never forget. So, maybe there were three highlights! No, that’s not correct. There were four highlights.

The best memory came from frustration. I found out later while flipping through my year book that my mom had signed it. That seemed weird to me and unnecessary. What mother signs her child’s yearbook? Yearbooks are for school friends to sign, right?

In person I expressed my frustration with her signing it. I asked her, “why would you do that?” She told me that she was my biggest fan and that some day I’d appreciate it. She was beyond right! As I’m writing this post today in 2020 I’m 32 years… and she’ll never know just how right she was.

It would be 7 years later before she would sign my very last yearbook again. Things were a little different now. I was graduating high school and my mom had cancer with not very long to live. I had secretly hoped that she would sign it this year and I wasn’t disappointed when I found her note.

Thanks, mom!

Healing from a Lost Loved One

The person who says “time will heal all wounds” has never lost a parent. The truth is you’ll never get “over it.” You will, however, learn to deal with it as time goes by. I still have moments where I’ll randomly get pricked in the heart and cry over the loss of my mother. The doctors were wrong about one thing in 2006, she fought a lot longer to live than expected. In fact, she got healed by God in a Pentecostal service of cancer. It was absolutely amazing! However, she passed away right before Thanksgiving in 2008 when her cancer came back. This time things were different though. Spiritually, she was ready to go unlike in 2006.

Sadly, my stepmom would unexpectedly pass away right before Thanksgiving of 2019. Many would ask us what happened and honestly it was tough to explain. She had some health issues, but they seemed to be under control before she was unexpectedly hospitalized. She also seemed to be improving in the hospital before I would get the dreaded call that she had passed away. In December 2019 COVID-19 was being rumored about. It wouldn’t be until March 2020 that things got serious in the United States. After looking back on what put her in the hospital and how her symptoms developed I wouldn’t be surprised if COVID-19 didn’t play a role. For it to be discovered in December shows me that it was around, we just didn’t know what it was at the time, nor what to call it.

As you can see Thanksgiving should be a rough holiday for me. However, I have a different perspective on Thanksgiving these days. In fact, I wrote a blog post about it called Perspective During Heartbreak that you can find in the family section of this blog. At the end of the day I’m truly grateful for those that I do have and I try not to take them for granted. Faith, family, and good friends can help you through anything. Thank you, Jesus, for such great gifts.

-Hank