Wednesday morning ended a journey with cancer for my youngest sister, Pam.
I left home and married when Pam was 12. We really weren’t close until 5 years later when Heath was born and Jim and I had our second child, Andrew. Besides our kids, we had a love for God and the Bible.
Our growing up years were dysfunctional, with intermittent fractured relationships. We decided to make a covenant with each other, come what may, we were going to maintain relationship and glorify God.
Over 52 years later, our families have remained close and so did our love for God.
Pam was instrumental in praying me through nursing school with 3 children. Our families have lived with each other, played and prayed together and our kids grew up almost like siblings instead of cousins.
Pam was my best friend. We understood each other and accepted and loved through the good, bad, and ugly.
We both loved the Word of God and read together and encouraged one another.
When she found out last April that the cancer had returned, she believed the Lord told her that this was her time to prepare to die.
Throughout this past year she has touched so many lives as she would be the one sending notes and praying for people. One of her precious friends had a sister dying of cancer and I watched as Pam hugged and loved on her before and after her sister passed.
Pam wanted to die at home and did not want to suffer horrendous pain. The family committed to make that happen. Jim & I went in November to spend a few weeks & ended up staying 3 months because she got so bad. We were able to laugh, cry, and be silly. Days of eating meals in the bedroom like the Willy Wonka family. As Brad sought to fulfill her slightest wish for food or outings with her oxygen and she would joke “What’s it going to do? Kill me?” With Hospice we were able to manage her pain and honor her other wish to die at home. Wednesday morning with worship music playing and Brad, Heath Jim & I at her bedside, we had the honor of seeing Pam pass into the arms of her Savior.
As we sat together after she passed, I felt the need to send one last text to her phone:
Sister your memory is a keepsake from which I’ll never part, God has you in His keeping and I have you in my heart. Now you can truly Glorify God and enjoy Him forever…I love you Sherry