Those Who Go Before Us

I had a pseudo rest day yesterday. I went to a coffee shop, had a vanilla chai sat on a couch and read some books. A man walked in with a face I recognized. As he sat down I said to him, "I don't remember your name but I know I know you". He said his name was Tom. I knew Tom from a church I used to go to. He worked with me in the children's church. We talked about his kids that were in the kids church when I was there. They were graduating from high school! Gees.

After we talked for while about that, he mentioned that he had some older children one of which had Lou Gehrig's disease. He spoke about his son's battles with this terrible disease. Once his son had died and the paramedics happened to have a doctor with them when they arrived who knew some special techniques to administer which brought him back to life. After that he was on a breathing machine for another 7 years before he died, 7 years that had not been promised to him... or us. As Tom spoke of his son's death I could see the tears gathering in his eyes, brimming but not overflowing. I could hear in his faulting voice the pain of losing his baby boy followed by his only hope - that he would see him again.