Going Home the Follow Up

Life outside the blog can sometimes get crowded for me, as it has lately.  It sometimes seems tempting to tend my own garden and go dark on the net.  Then I receive something like the missive I received yesterday from a reader.

I’ve been meaning to reach out to you directly for some time because of your blog and the fact that we appear to have many of the same interests, most importantly our shared Catholic faith and the Civil War.   The reason why I decided to reach out to you this morning was because of your post on Going Home.  I didn’t want to post this because of its personal nature and it didn’t seem likely to be of interest to others.  I typically go to your blog after morning prayers.  I clicked on your post and the Sissel version of Going Home and was listening to it in the living room which is close to the bedroom where my wife was going through her morning routine as a Stage 4 Cancer patient.  After listening for a while I could hear my wife clearing her nose.  I asked her if she was OK and she said “I love that song.”   I went in the bedroom and she was quietly crying.  She said that she wanted that song at her funeral.  Needless to say we were both crying in short order.  My wife of 45 years is not a crier or complainer and she’s been strong through 7 years of dealing with cancer but it was a “God moment” in so many ways.   In any event, thank you for your blog and witness.  Please pray for my wife that the Lord will strengthen her as she is “going home.”

Prayers for the reader and his wife.  What they are going through we all have to endure, but it makes it no easier when our turn comes.

Well, I was near tears after reading the message from the reader.  I began blogging for fun, but the help that the blog has given to people on their way through this aptly named Vale of Tears, has inspired me over the years.  I will try to do this so long as I am in this Vale of Tears.