Martha

I met Martha at church 20 years ago when I was pregnant with Jordan.  She's such a sweet lady who loves the Lord with all of her heart.  We always stayed in contact with her throughout the years.  When we moved back to Virginia after living in Illinois for a few years, she was the first one to contact us.  We struck up a very strong relationship.  We would do most if not all of the work needed around her house.  Seth cut her grass every week.  We raked her leaves (40 lawn bags) every fall, and often we had to go back and rake again (thanks to 3 or more oak trees).

After we came home with Joy, Martha started getting ill often.  She moved to Florida with her daughter.  She recently fell and broke her hip.  Mike spoke with her a few weeks ago and she said, "I'd like to see you all one last time."  How do you reply to that?  She's almost 90, she's our dear friend, and we love her very much.  So, we're packing everyone up and heading to Florida to see Martha for a few days.  We are very blessed to be staying in Martha's son-in-law's condo for free.  Martha is in rehab for most of the day, so we will be visiting with her every evening.  During the day, the children will get to play at the beach.  Eva and Joy have never seen the ocean, so this will be an exciting first for them.

The hard part will be saying good-bye.  It is very likely that we may never see her again this side of heaven.  It will not be easy to hold back the tears.