LOVE HEALS A MULTITUDE OF ILLS

Today I woke up in my bed in California with my husband for the first time in a month. For the past month I have been in Atlanta, caring for my 81-year-old mother, who is undergoing chemo for ovarian cancer. Although this was a devastating time in our lives, especially since we just lost my father tragically less than three months before, we found that love had an amazing healing effect for all of us. "All" included my mother, my sister, my nephew, and my niece and her two toddlers. Mother's care is truly a joint effort. Mother had to leave her home in Alabama and move in with my sister in Atlanta for the best treatment possible. 

My niece took the month of January and I arrived in Atlanta mid February. My duties included cooking three meals a day, shopped for groceries, ran errands, drove my mother to her chemo, her blood tests, her doctor appointments, and her visits to the hospital for her injections. My nephew pitched in whenever he could. Mother thrived! We were a family! Each night I prepared dinner for my mother, and my sister and nephew, when they arrived home from work. By the third chemo treatment, the physician assistant who examined mother, was surprised she could no longer find the grapefruit size tumor on her ovary! She warned us not to celebrate until the doctor examined Mother the following month. 

Last week they concurred that the tumor had shrunk . . . it was gone! What a miracle! As the wonderful Gaither hymn, Because He Lives, says, "I know who holds my future!" Mother's chemo was completed in half the time the doctor predicted prior to surgery. Another miracle! Thanks to a great God and prayers from friends, family, and loyal churches throughout the country, this cut her chemo in half. After surgery we are facing only six more chemo treatments, and then Mother will be cancer free to live out the days of her life at home with her friends and family. She is ready to go to heaven now, but how blessed her children and her grandchildren are to have her here upon this earth.

Now I am home for a month, and then I return for Mother's surgery in April. What a privilege to care for my mother, who has cared for me my entire life, with such love! Love does heal a multitude of ills. Jesus said, "Faith, hope, and love . . . .the greatest of these are love!"

Have a blessed day!

Susan Wales