8/28/08 Pam and the paddle-wheeler

My dear friend Pam died today of the cancer. We had prayed together for the past year and a half in our Bible studies about the cancer in her and Terry as well as the many others on our prayer list. Her prayer would always be that the Lord would either let her live or take her quick because she wanted to enjoy each day He gave her. She loved life and her gave people much to smile and laugh about with her stories and grand sense of humor. I will miss her terribly. Her death gave Terry and I a renewed sense of living each day to the fullest. She told me a week ago to keep going and laugh every day. “Everything will be okay” she told me. For her, “okay” was the fact that she knew her death meant her victory in Christ. She would be with her God. No “lost battle from cancer for her”, she felt she would be the winner because she would be in heaven with her loved ones where she would wait for the rest of us to join her. “Then we’ll have a party,” she told me over and over this past year. Oh, I cried. I told her I would and I did because I will miss her brave spirit, her laughter and her strong faith in Christ. I cried for me and for her family who will struggle to put days together without her, but I didn’t cry for her. No, she is where she wanted to be.

Terry and I took a boat tour of the 1000 Islands area on a paddle-wheel steamer in her honor. She told me not to stop the trip so we went anyway. The sights were grand and the mega-million dollar homes on the privately owned islands were awesome. I’m sure she saw some awesome homes on her trip on her paddle-wheeler this summer too.