Monday, June 18, 2007

Wendy

On Friday night, I received an email from my best friend from high school with a link to a blog and a note. She was writing to tell me that a girl that we knew growing up from our church youth group (only a year older) was in the hospital in a coma...and that things did not look good. Her husband had found her Monday night unconscious and not breathing on their living room floor. Some person or people had thoughtfully put together a blog to inform people of Wendy's condition and I read everything that was posted.

Over the course of the weekend, several times a day, I checked the blog to see what the updates were on Wendy's condition. An EEG on Saturday morning reported no change in brain activity and her family struggled to determine whether to send her to hospice or remove physiological assistance.

I have been deeply and personally affected by this...even though I have not spoken to Wendy in years. You see, Wendy would be leaving behind her husband, a 4-year daughter and a 3-week old son. And I thought about our little family. Wendy was a healthy woman...and one day after a shower, her husband walks in and finds her on the floor. As far as I know, doctors still aren't entirely sure what had caused this coma, except for the lack of oxygen to the brain...other contributing factors are unknown.

Saturday night, Wendy was removed from all support at almost 7pm and at 10:05pm, she passed away holding the hand of her husband, never having regained consciousness.

This morning I read a post about Wendy's husband telling their daughter about her mother and I just cried. Not that I hadn't been crying and hurting for this family all weekend...and wondering if our family could survive something like that.

I know that God is sovereign and that He is in control of all things and that this would happen has been known since time began. But even though I should derive some comfort from that, I'm not...I'm thinking about those poor children.

No comments: