Gut Wrenched

After Dear Friend Tammy's death on Tuesday, I was consigned to an Eeyore-kind of week. You know, the one where the little black cloud hangs over your head and you just grit your teeth and get through it?

Yesterday I sat through a PTA meeting that lasted into the early afternoon, then came home and got on the computer again. It felt like a kick to my already sore guts. My other friend from growing up in Garlic-ville, Jennifer, had passed away that morning.

Jenn suffered seven years with GIST, a rare stomach cancer. She lived seven years with this painful situation. She tried many experimental drug trials over the years. The most recent one was helping her only to be pulled and discontinued due to lousy side effects in others. Her sweet husband, David, said two weeks ago she was feeling strong enough to go to church. But Wednesday night about 10 PM she took a turn for the worse and was gone by 7 AM Thursday morning.

Like Tammy, Jennifer is a wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend. Jenn's two boys are young--Cub Scout age or so. While she lived in Southern California, and I didn't see her regularly, I feel my heart sinking with heaviness at her loss. She is only a year older than I am. We grew up in the same city, same ward. She was a wonderful example of the power of positivity. And like Tammy, she is gone too soon because of a disease that has no cure.

It makes me angry that these two friends are gone from their families. But I find that anger softened a bit by the understanding I have that they will see their loved ones again; That these two wonderful women knew Jesus Christ, and His gospel and were covenant women of God. I also feel gratitude that their suffering is over, and they are free of pain and anguish that comes with a body wracked with such illnesses.

Give me a little while. I'll bounce back. But I will miss these good women in my life. And I look forward to seeing them again. What a reunion that will be!