Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – B. J. Cassady

Sept 10, 2006

A Season for All Things

B.J. Cassady
 
       My wife had taught me about love.  She had taught me about
sacrifice, enduring, and about devotion. I  know she was teaching
me the most powerful lesson and most painful lesson of all, the
lesson of grief and letting go.  Cancer soon would take the last
breath from her lungs yet her dignity would not be taken.  She
taught me that cancer cannot take her soul, her dignity, our love. 
I had prayed over and given her communion.  I broke bread
and never will that experience be mundane to me again.  Never
will partaking of the cup be a 'ritual' again.  I paid her tithing
soon before, again firming my belief in doing the right thing.
We believed in being a couple, in doing things the right way
unto the end.   We were old-fashioned, this 48 year old wife
of mine.  We were not angry at God for her being terminally
ill.  We enjoyed life and living each wondrous day.  We enjoyed
every 24 carat day, every moment.  So as the moments became
fewer, we focused upon them and they became more intense.
With her life fading she laid in our bed, looking at me with her
eyes she whispered, "I see Jesus."
 
   With tear-filled eyes I responded, "Go to Him.  Your sins have
been forgiven."
 
   My loving wife, my best friend, my example of courage then
smiled at me, her husband, her best friend and said, "Good-bye."
She closed her eyes, exhaled and passed on to her reward.
 
   I held her for a time.  Time had no meaning then.  How can
one describe the pain I felt, yet also knowing the freedom of
pain she had?  I was feeling sad for me, yet happy for her.  I
can not ever describe the ! multitud e of emotions that overcame
me in that short time September 10th, 1994. 
 
BJ. Cassady

BJ.Cassady@af-group.com