Page 48 - eBook Living Water 2

experience because of my own similar inexplicable one after surgery
years before. What we all did understand was the glow on his face
and the tears of joy in his eyes.

I wish I could say that our marriage was healed instantly from
that point. But an amazing thing did happen. We each became aware
of being espoused to another - Jesus. Even though we were to never
taste the joy of a healed earthly marriage, we began to taste of the
fruit of our heavenly one which our earthly one was to have been a
picture of. In His grace, God gave to us freely and without conditions
from His well. We had His Peace through what many would expect
to be the most horrendous days of our lives. People came to be
uplifting and went away uplifted.

On September 11, 2002, I had made an evening visit with Fred
at the nursing home he had been transferred to four days earlier. I
spent time resting on his shoulder. Occasionally he would open his
groggy eyes and glance at me. I thought maybe he had been
medicated. When the visiting hours were over, I slowly began to
move towards leaving. Fred opened his eyes and looked at me and
simply said, "Help me", and then closed his eyes. Those were the last
words I would ever hear him say. Thinking back now, I remember
that’s how our relationship had begun when he walked into my office,
with those “help me” puppy dog eyes.

One hour later, as I sat at home watching the news concerning
the one year anniversary of September 11 (three days after our
twenty-ninth anniversary and nine days before Fred's sixtieth
birthday), the phone rang. It was the nurse. She told me that she had
just been with Fred and his breathing had changed and perhaps I
should return. By the time I arrived, Fred had already met our Savior.
Oh, how I would have wanted to be there to "help" him as the Lover
of his soul reached out to his paralyzed body, empowering him to rise
up to walk together with Him into eternity. Why hadn’t I stayed just
an hour longer? That "help me" he had uttered wanted to haunt me
and rob me of my joy. But the Lover of my soul kept reminding me