Ten Years

Ten years ago today, my wife Mirjam tragically passed away. She had bone marrow cancer. I thought until then that every cancer was treatable, to some extent. In this case, one could only do palliative care. The moment it was discovered, they gave her chemotherapy -- which put her into precipitous decline. But she lived for a year. Her last words to me were, "I'll pray for you." On ministerial instinct, I called family members and said, Call her now. Three were able to get through, the last of whom was son M. I thought, "She was waiting for that." OBSERVATION: Her death was a very big shock to me, although I knew it was coming. I have heard other ministers say that they were familiar with bereavement but nothing prepared them for the death of a spouse.