Doing everything by myself, after doing most everything together, takes a lot of adjusting. There is not much fun in a coffee at the mall alone, and certainly drives out of town no longer held the same attraction as when Harry and I would enjoy an hour away from everyone and return to our little home.
But now I have a widowed friend who was there to share my heartache and tears as my husband’s cancer progressed. She had gone through the same process two years before.
“There are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematician that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one.” —G. K. Chesterson. Truer words were never spoken.
I can share with her my bad days and she listens. She is a good listener. And she understands when I say it was a two or three “Kleenex cry.”
Friends are a gift from God, especially in tough times and are needed as much as food and drink.
They feed your soul … and make life worth living again. So I wrote this verse for Mary…
I know there is a Lord above, because He sent you to me
To bring me love and comfort, helping some hope to see.
For my heart was aching, and you listened to me cry.
You often shared my tears as I questioned, why, dear God, why?
Together we have walked this road but my sorrow has been less
Because of you (a listening friend), I have been truly blessed.
Printed in New Hope newsletter, summer of 2010
