DEATH A PART OF CREATION
On Sept 5th. 1999 my only Sister, Mary, died.
For the past two articles we have talked about the "Miracles of Creation" Sister Mary, like billions of other human beings, was a part of this creation and like the antelope, butterfly, bird or cricket she lived, enjoyed, and now has returned to the mystery of whence all life has come.
Like our Mother, She had great Faith in a personal God with an eternal heavenly home after departure from life on this planet and dedicated her life to that principle. Spending nearly 20 years with her husband, LeRoy and their two Sons, Larry & Steve in the Missionary Service in Bolivia, South America.
Whatever, our religious beliefs maybe regarding creation, we all must accept the fact that death is an integral part of that creation. From the tiniest microbe to the mightiest of men. Death cometh to all. Whether it be the few short hours of a fruit fly or thousand or so years of a red wood tree. No life, as we know it to day, is for eternity on this planet. So while I miss my Sister very much, I also realize that this is a natural part of the creation. Mankind's average stay on this planet is approximately 70-80 years. Sister Mary fell within that category.
Perhaps one of the things about creation that is hard for me to understand is the fact that most of our lives we live in a hostile atmosphere. From the moment of our entry on this planet until we take that last breath. Life is a struggle just to exist. Most of our waking life is spent putting food in our stomachs, a roof over our heads and trying to protect ourselves from, bubonic plague, small pox, tuberculosis, Aids or other human beings that would do us in be it war or a back street mugging.
Then after all of that then we are faced with "Those Golden Years" which in so many cases our bodies rapidly deteriorate until that time they can no longer replenish their daily needs and we die.
My Sister was a victim of a terrible disease called, Alzheimer which slowly destroys the brains cells of it's victims yet lets them live with the knowledge that each day they will become more and more mentally incapacitated. At first I would not accept that fact, I thought there might be other causes, however, these last couple of years, my Sisters disease had followed the pattern of Alzheimer's pretty closely. I have spent many hours with her over these past four or five years and have tried to put myself in her place and imagine what it would have been like to know that each day one more part of my memory would die and that there was no known help available.
It is was not easy, after Mary lost her ability to speak, to have her look into my eyes, with a what seemed like a desperation pleading from her eyes, which so forcibly seemed to be asking, "please help me" and yet all I could do was to kiss her on her forehead, give her hand a loving squeeze and walk away.
It is things like this that make one wonder, why are so many "Miracles of Creation" are subjected to so many horrors of disease and pain.
On Saturday Sept 18th there will be a Memory Walk for Alzheimer disease starting at 10:00 o'clock. At Tomah VA - Memory Garden- Registration begins at 9:00. I will be walking in Memory of my sister Mary, hoping to add funds to research in finding a cure for this terrible disease. I would be pleased to have anyone join with me. 608-435-6790
Our next Article will be on Genetic Engineering.
My Sister, Mary's Obituary appears on my other Geocities site.
:click here
GEOCITIES EKW COMMUNITY PAGE
http://www.geocities.com/~billweber/ekw/
Also for more information on Alzheimers disease click on:
ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION at:
>http://www.alz.org/<