A Terrible, Wonderful Day

Yesterday was a terrible, wonderful day. It was terrible because my youngest sister, Kim, had a bilateral mastectomy due to a recent breast cancer diagnosis. It was wonderful because Mama and all five of her children were together for the first time in years. The last time we were all together was when Daddy died in 1997. Kim has been the missing link in family togetherness for many years, and ironically, she was the link that brought us all back together yesterday. I have always believed that there is a silver lining in every cloud, and yesterday was no exception. In a small but comfortable waiting room at St. Vincent's Hospital, Mama, Debbie, Gray and Deborah Lynn, Tamarah and I waited together through a long day of surgery for Kim. We caught up on family news, gave Tamarah a platform to brag about her brand new, first grandchild, passed around pictures, and listened to the latest braggings of Pa Gray and Nana who are veteran grandparents now with five grands, all age six and under. We were enchanted by the antics of Kim's seven year old daughter, Caitlin whom none of us have ever gotten to spend much time with, and discovered that she is not only cute as a button, but has a great personality and sense of humor all her own. We met and got to know new people who shared the room with us, and Debbie and I quilted. Hey, I never waste an opportunity to quilt, and I accomplished a good bit on two samplers I am making. Debbie brought fabric to share and we spread one piece on the floor, laid sampler blocks on top of it and planned a finished quilt. It was fun to have everyone's input in that. We planted some quilting seeds in Tamarah and by the end of the day she was starting to catch the bug. I have a feeling that she will become a quilter in 2010. We ate lunch together, shopped together in the hospital gift shops and pulled together to make a long and scary day more bearable. At the end of the day we had wonderful news: the surgery was successful, the cancer was non-invasive, and there was no sign of malignancy in the lymph nodes. Kim was officially in remission. We all gathered around her bedside and for a short time our family circle was complete, and peace reigned. It is a shame that it took such a frightening ordeal for this to be accomplished. I will never say that God causes bad things to happen, but I do firmly believe that He uses all circumstances in our lives to bring about good. He works in mysterious ways that are not ours to comprehend in this lifetime. Our job is to trust Him with a childlike faith in all situations and allow ourselves to be led by His perfect will. When we can give up control and do that, we experience His perfect peace... until our human selves start grabbing that control back again. I pray that this terrible, wonderful day was a turning point in our family and there will be many complete family circles in the future that are brought about voluntarily and not by tragic circumstance.