Friday, February 06, 2009

hold us close

She put on her sweet smile and said, "I have Lou Gehrig's disease." As she said it, I saw the deep pain in her husband's eyes.

They were in my office today to sign some papers, these friends of mine. And with those words, spoken with a lovely hope behind them, she shifted my thinking about life... again.

No, I don't have any more answers now. It's only been a couple hours. Quite frankly, I'm still reeling from the shock and throwing a massive temper tantrum at God. Thankfully, he's treating me like an overstressed 2-year-old and just holding me close while I rail, catching my tears until I tire and allow his comfort in.

...may there be mercy and grace to support my friends however they need.

5 comments:

Melissa said...

Oh sweetheart I'm so sorry.

Karen :) said...

(((~c)))

Anonymous said...

crap!
hav

SuziQoregon said...

That sucks!

Eleanor said...

I don't know if you remember that I lost a sweet friend to ALS. He lived more than 20 years after his diagnosis. It was hell on earth, to be sure, but he never, ever lost his sense of wonder at life, or his interest in any of the things that had always given him pleasure -- or his sense of humor. His wife has recently told me that the only thing she looks at on people anymore is their EYES, because she learned how to read everything there.

Please encourage your friend to aggressively seek out clinical trials. That's what Hutch did, and there is no doubt that the one in which he took part added not only years -- but quality by some measure I don't even want to imagine -- to his life.

Bless you as you walk this road with them. No matter how her disease progresses, nothing about who she is will change one iota -- so don't EVER forget that.