My dear cousin, Jean

I received some sad news today. One of my cousins will probably be overcome by cancer and will leave this earth soon. Jean has been in bed for a while and sleeps most of the time. She is barely hanging on to life but at this point, in this condition, life has nothing to offer her. I have never met Jean face to face, but I have shared some amazing emails that has given me the privilege to call her my friend not just my cousin. I met Jean by accident on Facebook. I thought she was somebody else and we became instant friends. Jean is old enough to be my own mom, but that does not matter to me. In her pain from her chemotherapy, she gave a huge part of herself to me in a time in my life where there was so much darkness. She gave me the liberty to share my "story" without fear or shame and still love me and give me hope in the end. That is what I needed so badly.

I would log on to my Facebook and there would be a wall post or a personal email waiting often 2 and three times a week. And they would be long posts. She talked as much as I do. Sometimes she would run out of space on a wall post and start another just so she could finish what she thought she need to share with me. She knew how badly I wanted to travel to Scotland. On one of her good days when the pain wasnt taking her strength, she and her husband, Walter, drove around Leslie taking digital photos. She made a special digital photo album of her shots and emailed it to me. I so appreciated her heart. Last Christmas she sent me a homemade Christmas card; it was so crafty.

Jean is a prayer. She told me she went out to the Labyrinth to pray for herself and her family and somewhere along the way through the maze, the Lord lead her to fervently pray for me, my wife and my kids. That was huge to me and I knew she was praying because God was listening and working in my life. I too prayed for her; believing for her healing; believing that she had more to do on this earth. Only God knows the length of a mans days. He decides when the length of our life is long enough. What a glorious day it will be when she gets to see her Heavenly Father face to face.

I am humbled and honored to be a part of Jeans life. I promised her that I would travel to Scotland to meet her face to face. I still believe I will get to keep that promise. I would board a plane tomorrow if money werent an object.

Love you Jean.