Anna's Story - Part Two

This is part two of Anna's story -- a woman who has reason to be disappointed with her life at this point.  Let's see what's going on today:

Anna Smithson had become almost like a hermit.  A set of happenings had changed everything for her.  First, a long-time boyfriend suddenly called off their relationship, moved out and quickly married someone else.  With that blow still very fresh, her mother told her one afternoon, almost as a by-the-way that she had cancer.  Always a woman very much in charge, her mother got treatment for the cancer which was centered in her bowel, but at some point along the way she halted everything and told Anna that she had made her peace with the disease. 

 That didn’t set well and Anna had begged her mother to continue, but her mother wouldn’t be dissuaded – it was time for her to see Anna’s father again, she said. 

 “But Mom, the doctors told me that they have something else they might be able to try,” Anna pleaded.  “You might qualify to be part of a trial drug.”

“Anna, I know this must be terribly hard for you, but I am not strong when it comes to illness.  You know yourself I’ve always been so well.  These trips to the doctor’s office and to the hospital are just leaving me so tired and weak.  It’s just too much for me, and I hope you won’t hate me for this decision I’ve made, she said.  “I’ve thought about this a lot and it’s the right thing for me.”

At that, Anna became quiet.  Her mother moved closer toward her only daughter on the living room couch and put her arm around her. 

“I’ll miss you so much, Anna.  But in heaven I can pray for you and for everyone,” her mother said.

Her mother’s condition deteriorated very quickly after that, and in her final days at a nearby hospice, she was heavily medicated to control the pain.  Still, she seemed restless at times and needed to talk, especially in the evenings since she could see the setting sun from her room.

“Anna, you know I’ve kept quiet about ‘everything,’ but you have to make me a promise and then make it to yourself.  You’ll go back to church.  You’ll find your true purpose.  And don’t blame God for Jeremy leaving and don’t blame God for my cancer,” she whispered. 

“Oh, Mom,” Anna said.

 “Anna, all things work into a pattern of good for those who know and serve the Lord.  And it is so true, so right,” her mother said.

 Later that same day, her mother slipped into a coma and died on a Friday evening with red sun’s rays disappearing over the horizon.