The Gift of One Day

My wife and I had the distinct pleasure of spending time this weekend with a friend that is fighting cancer. I left the experience feeling that I had been uniquely blessed by being there. It was not without some unease that we made the trip to the Lake where our friend, Judy, owns a house. Our mutual friend, Diane, has been diagnosed with an insipid form of cancer that holds a poor prognosis. The alphabet soup of the medical terms now escapes my graying head, but suffice it to say that it laid on our hearts when spoken like a stone.

But we had been a foursome in better times, using the lake house like a private club, playing cards, reading, walking along the shore and engrossed in conversations that wove their ways around the brush and into the lagoons of our memory. This past weekend was a revival of this human chemistry and as usual, left me apologizing for my lack of skill at Bridge and warming in the company of friends. Spring storms ebbed and flowed like a visual reminder of the fragility of life, the importance of each day as a treasure from God.

This is not Diane's first bout with the enemy. She faced and conquered it over a decade ago. She has no doubt that this will be yet another fight in which she will emerge victorious. We couldn't agree more. It was not lost on me how quietly she endured the pain of her recent operation, without complaint, and what fortitude she showed in her unwavering claim of victory this time as well. It will be a formidable challenge. The doctors are not quite as optimistic though she shows no faith in their view. She was remarkably herself and laughter and banter filled the air as in times past. Thankfully, she has other friends and her children standing with her in this battle.

Our gracious hostess, Judy, now faces a trip to Florida this coming week to visit yet another friend, Millie, whose prognosis, with another more insidious form of this disease, is grim. She will go with the knowledge that the pain of the coming loss will be great. But go she will. Undoubtedly, she is the strongest person I know. Her heart is breaking but hides it well as she ministers to friends that soon will know the secret of the passing of one life into another. This, to me, is the true measure of friendship. It is easy to enjoy good times and share in excess. It is harder, much harder to love unconditionally when grief is the theme of life's experience. The peripheral strains of disagreement on temporal things disappears at the end of one's journey. The heart of a true friend forgives all, remembers no wrongs, no hurts, only the joy of knowing the other.

Diane and Millie are truly blessed to have Judy in their life. As are we.