Ginny was married to my mom's brother, R.T., for 61 years. She was a quiet and kind woman of great accomplishment.
Ginny was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few months ago. The same cancer that took my mom's life in 2019.
It struck me at the funeral that R.T. is now the age his father was when I was in college - and R.T. looks a lot like I remember Grandpa.
I told Melissa at the end of the day that if I could have a choice, I would check out like my grandfather did. He was fit and healthy until the end. I remember that when he turned 80, his big birthday gift was a rowing machine.
A few years later, he went to bed one night and didn't rise in the morning.
It makes me think of the fantastic title of Dave Barry's exercise book parody from years ago: Stay Fit and Healthy Until You're Dead.
That's one of my life goals now.
Now, I have exercised on a regular basis for years, but I was recently diagnosed with a torn meniscus, putting my running to an end. The knee problems, along with recent cancer diagnoses of people I love, remind me that, at the end of the day, I don't have an ounce of ultimate control over the state of my body.
Or how the end will come.
Or when.
There's not much that is certain about the future. But at the funeral, Psalm 23 hit me deeper than ever before. Especially verse 6:
Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
So far, the first half of that verse has proven to be reliable. To the uttermost.
Why wouldn't I trust the second half?
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