Mom Promoted to Glory December 15, 2011

Reflections by Cindy Langford
Mom’s faith was evidenced quietly through the years as she served her family faithfully, cooked meals for the sick, visited people in the hospital, and sent notes of encouragement..After she retired from Nyce Printing, she volunteered at GVH for 2000 hours. She loved to express her faith through music and sang in the choir for over 50 years. My first recollection of sacred classical music began in 4th grade going with her to hear Handel’s Messiah, where she was singing in the choir. It was because of her that much of my own life was spent in church music. She was also a sports enthusiast and our whole family enjoyed skiing trips during our high-school years. I also remember going with her to do Johnstown Flood relief with Mennonite Disaster Services in my late teens. But her quiet faith was especially pronounced during the past 2 years of her sons cancer and then her own. On a visit we made to see Charlotte Strouse in recent months, she told us that when she could not sleep, she would often go over hymn texts in her head. It cannot go unnoticed that Dad stayed by her side and faithfully took care of her --loving her sacrificially, caring for her until the very end. The greatest joy for me as a daughter was seeing my parents growing love for each other in these increasingly difficult days.


In a journal entry for November 16, I wrote: "Spent good time with mom talking, sharing, crying, singing hymns. We often did her daily devotional together from ‘Upper Room,‘ took turns reading the scriptures and then prayed. She always preferred to pray silently. As we discussed John 14:1-7 where Jesus says about Himself that He is the only way to the Father, I felt led to read Romans 10:9-10, If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your Heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved.... So I asked her, Mom can you say, Jesus is Lord? And she said,"Jesus is Lord!" And then she agreed to pray with me a simple prayer. "Lord thank you for dying for my sins so that I may have life. Come anew into my life for the remaining days. If you want to take me to heaven it’s ok, or if not please give me endurance to continue until you do." After this we sang lots of hymns and dad joined us as we sang, ‘I come to the Garden.’"


On a Journal Entry for Sunday, December 11, 2011 "I noted several visitors that day, even though she wasn’t able to talk, even sleeping most of the time. Later that day when I was singing some of her favorite hymns to her, she interrupted me with the singing of one of her favorites:
Cast Thy Burden Upon the Lord,
And He will sustain Thee,
He Never will suffer the righteous to fall,
He is at thy Right hand.
Thy Mercy Lord is great and far above the heavens,
Let none be made ashamed, That Wait upon thee..
It was evidence of the Spirit being very alive in her even though her body was rapidly declining."

On December 15, 2011 in a journal entry I was led to Psalm 136 where the Lord exhorted me to Give thanks to the LORD for His loving-kindness is everlasting. As I personalized the Psalm as a prayer I continued to write: "From out of my distress of mom’s cancer, I called upon the LORD and He answered me and set me in a large place. ..." That night Dad, Brenda, and me were gathered around her bed. We could see she was fading. At this point she was unable to move by herself at all except for a few arm movements. By now her eyes had been glazed over for a few days. Dad, Brenda, and I were singing hymns to her, reading some of the scriptures she had chosen for this service including John 14:1-7, Psalm 23, and other scriptures about heaven. At around 6:00 pm we noticed her breathing was very labored, rapid heartbeat, some congestion increasing. We kept singing and talking to her, gave her the meds to help her relax and her breathing began to be more relaxed. At about 7:40 pm her eyes opened wide as if she was seeing into heaven. We kept singing, reading scriptures, at this point her pulse was weaker and as dad kept his hand on her chest to feel the breathing, he felt her last breath at about 7:55pm, which was not forced but very peaceful. What a privilege to be with her, holding her hands and singing her into heaven where there is no longer anymore pain, sorrow, sin, suffering, but only the Beauty and magnificence of the Lord Jesus Christ and her recently deceased son, whom she grieved since his passing May 10th of this year after his year long battle with Brain cancer."
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