An Ordinary Woman

Franklin D. Roosevelt said of December 7, 1941 that was "a day that shall live in infamy." For this scribe, January 21, 2011, is the day of infamy! That day, a mere ten days short of the forty-seventh anniversary of our nuptials, my Mary entered eternity. Though she had been battling Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis for some five years, I was not ready for her departure. Someone said, "Grief is the price we pay for choosing to love in a fallen world," and offered Romans 5:12 as proof.

My hope is that anyone who has lost a spouse will find in this effort some encouragement to go on with life, whether one marries again or forebears to do so. "The first obligation of life is to live," according to "The Bird Man of Alcatraz." I fully believe this is the will of God for every human being.