Like Julie, he also was born with spina bifida. They shared common physical problems but they were not alike in age. Jack was born in 1947. Julie was born in 1970. The 23 years separating them in age was never a handicap.
He lived to the fullest, and then God must have decided it was time for him to take eternal rest. I think he just wore out.
Jack had one leg removed in 1998 after a four month hospitalization in Grand Junction, CO where they were living at the time. But that did not slow down his arms propelling his wheelchair, kept in motion as he attended church events, fairs, museums, dance recitals, all the while keeping his camera shutter blinking open and closed, recording events in the lives of others.
When my brother and I were with Julie in those three days after Jack died, we breathed deeply and kept moving on with things. Then on the fourth day after Jack died, Julie had another medical crisis necessitating an ambulance ride to Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill, SC where she remains presently, being treated for pressure wounds.
The physician in charge knows how important it is for Julie to attend Jack's funeral today, and the medical village attending to her in hospital has gathered round and all are working in their own special ways to get her a two hour suspension from the confines of her hospital room so that I can drive her to Charlotte, NC to see Jack's casket be lowered back into the earth. Ecclesiastes 3 will be read, at her request. There is a time and season for everything, and this was his time to die. It will be a hard day. Your prayers for Julie are appreciated.
The end of this week contains many appointments for helping get their affairs settled toward the ultimate goal of getting back to Grand Junction and settled there into Mesa Manor, a skilled nursing facility.
Until I write again, God be with you and keep on with the enjoyment of what you like to do. Smell those lovely spring flowers, enjoy the rain and sun, wind and sky. I am doing the same.
During natural disasters two enemy animals
will call a truce, so during a hurricane
an owl will share a tree with a mouse
and, during an earthquake, you might find
a mongoose wilted and shivering
beside a snake. The bear will sit down
in a river and ignore the passing salmon
just as the lion will allow the zebra
to walk home without comment.
I love that there are exceptions.
At funerals and weddings, for example,
the aunts who never speak nod
politely to one another. When my mother
was sick even the prickly neighbors
left flowers and cakes at our door
"Natural Disasters" by Faith Shearin from Telling the Bees. © Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2015