Mourn With Those Who Mourn

In early days of 2005 I met Susan and Chuck through work. Susan and I were in the same business. Chuck, Susan's husband, is a wealth of information and opinion; he's forgotten more people than I could ever know, and he's not on the fence on any topic. I enjoy his company.

In February of '05 Susan was in the office when Aaron came by for a visit. I should always remember the conversation. I was so proud of Aaron. He always handled himself well with adults. His confidence and humilty were apparent in their conversation.

Susan and Chuck were new friends the day Aaron died. I remember them coming to our house to sit and listen to me cry. I recall thinking how unfortunate for them to become have these "new friends" and be thrust in the middle of this anguish. They kept in touch and didn't vanish. One day Cathy and I were pulling together the expenses related to the funeral and we were some funds short of the bill. Chuck and Susan, sensing there might be a need, appeared with a check covering the difference and then some.

Chuck and Susan travel some in the summer as Chuck is an avid tournament golfer and a daughter plays for a college. It was not surprising to me that we had not had much contact since the spring. This morning I saw a mutual friend. She informed me that Susan's son had died in a plane crash in South America--sometime in September. I almost fell down at the news. Somewhere along the way, Susan was advised that it might not be good to talk to Cathy and I for fear of opening an old wound. What good is the pain of living the agony if you don't use what you learned? God's healing grace is a gift to be shared.

I talked to Susan this morning. We will all get together tomorrow.

Praying for another person's pain.

Tom