Job 2:13 “Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.”
Walking into my first support group for parents who lost a child was terrifying. As I looked around, there were couples in the room who ranged from all ages. I soon noticed an elderly woman. She sat all by herself and she appeared to be in her eighties. I remember thinking to myself that her child had to have been older when he passed away. I also remember thinking at least she must have had him for many years. I only had my daughter for seventeen years. How I perceived this in my mind would soon change as we sat down and proceeded to tell our stories.
This sweet little woman was eighty-five. She just lost her only son at the age of sixty-five. Her heart was broken for this son who had blessed her for so long. She was also very afraid of what she was going to do next. You see, this son helped her with the care of her immobilized husband. Her son was the one she leaned on for her support. He was her handyman, her driver, her shopper and was also her advisor. I learned a very valuable lesson on that day. It does not matter what age we lose our child. They are our future. Whether we have lost them in vitro or when we are in our eighties, each loss has an impact on what we as mothers had planned for our future and for our child’s future. To say, “at least” we are minimizing the loss of that child to that mother and in the loss of a child we cannot minimize any loss.
Lord, I pray for each mother who has suffered the worst loss, their own.
~ Michele
