Today is Wednesday, March 22nd, 2017; Karen's Korner #3518

Yesterday my good friend Judy Ahrends passed away.

She was more than a friend. Her husband, Kim, and my husband, Jim, were first cousins. While both of our families lived in Clarion, we saw each other only a handful of times each year. Whenever we had a family reunion (always at our farmstead as the Ahrends family moved here in 1902!), Kim & Judy and family would be here.

In 2012, Judy was diagnosed with breast cancer. And in January 2014, she learned that she had Stage 4 breast cancer and would never be cancer free. At our July family reunion that same year, she was recounting her medical news to family members in attendance.

I loved her openness about what was happening to her. So she and I began "Tuesdays with Judy" shortly after. I'd stop at their family business and we'd go for coffee (really cold soft drinks!) and chat. Usually about an hour.

Judy would talk about her childhood, her family from birth until the present day. She'd tell about meeting Kim and their marriage and work together. She'd tell about her cancer and her future...in this life and in the next. We would just talk. Before she'd jump out of my vehicle and go back to work, we'd say a short prayer and she'd give me a hug.

Early on in our 'talks', I gave her a favorite 'travel book' of mine. It's a short story "Discover Paradise:  A Guidebook to Heaven, Your True Home" by Dr. David Jeremiah. He tells about what we can expect when we arrive in heaven: 

The book describes a very different existence to the one we have here:  Jerusalem, a large (HUGE!) city; pearly gates; streets of gold; no boredom; no diseases; no illness; no death; perfect love; seeing Jesus face-to-face. The first Bible verse quoted in the book says:

"You will show me the path of life.

In Your presence is fullness of joy.

At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

~ Psalm 16:11

She showed me how to live; didn't stop working in all that time until the last few months. And how to die; knowing what the future holds for all of us.

The last couple of days were especially hard ones.

But she escaped this life yesterday.

Appropriately it was another "Tuesday with Judy".

Praise God!!



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