Family on Earth, Family in Heaven

When Uri was 13 months old, we went to California to visit family. My Nana was sick with cancer, but when I scheduled the trip a few months in advance I had no idea how quickly her health would decline. As it turned out, she was hospitalized a few days before we came, and then settled home in hospice care the day we arrived. Nearing the end of life is a time of grief, and there is something sacred about those last days together. It was meaningful to have my Nana, Uri's great-grandmother, lay hands on him and bless him one last time before she passed. It was special to pray together and to have quality time with her. The first couple days she was home on hospice she was alert and communicative, but very soon she didn't even have the strength to sit up, open her eyes, or speak anymore. 

I have experience with hospice care and I have training as a "home care aid", to assist with people who are bedridden or otherwise in need of special care. I was able to help care for my Nana while I was there, as well as passing on knowledge and confidence to my mom and sister who were among Nana's primary caregivers. It felt like such a divine appointment that the timing of my trip landed on the very day hospice care started. 

I believe Uri and I were there for about 7 days. When I said goodbye to Nana, she was able to draw on her reserves of strength to whisper a blessing and a farewell. She passed away a few days later.

Of course we didn't know that Uri would be joining her in heaven only 9 months later. Seeing this picture of them together on earth has a sacredness to it, yet it is marred by the presence of sickness and the condition of the fallen world. It is a joy to imagine them together in heaven. Nana is whole and well and playing with Uri with such joy. It is such a beautiful reality, and I look forward with great anticipation the day that I can join them there. Jacob and I walk out this life as a holy duty, but we look ever with yearning towards the day we will be reunited with our loved ones who have gone before, and when we will no longer see through a glass darkly. Praise the Lord that day will come.