THE CHERRY PIE

I know that these blog posts are somewhat confusing, because I have chosen to separate out the stories of the passing of my mother-in-law from Ben's illness and hospital stays.  They occurred in the same timeframe right on top of each other--but each was huge and so important to us that I feel they need to be separated from each other.  After Gary reads it all, I might have to redo it if he thinks it is too confusing--he is my after the fact editor of the blog.

SO---back to the Thursday before the funeral as Gary and I are sitting in the ER with Ben on the second "first day" in the ER:

In the afternoon, I got a text from my sister-in-law, Vonette, checking on Ben and telling me that Maggie (Charon's mother-in-law) had dropped off an apple pie and a cherry pie.

My response: "Save me a piece of cherry pie...that is my all time favorite pie.  It is what my mom made me for my birthday every year since I was ten or so.  It feels like a tender mercy that Maggie would bring one today."

Later that night, Tosha texted me and said that Charon had dropped off a whole cherry pie with instructions that I was to get the whole pie.  When I got home around 9:30, Tosha and I had a piece and talked for awhile in the quiet house before I went to work on my talk.  It was great and it was just a perfect thing in the middle of a very hard week.  Again it felt like my mom was watching and helping me each day.

Now for the rest of the story:

In the limo after the funeral, Charon turned and asked how I liked the pie.  "I loved it," I said.  She and Vonette exchanged glances and started laughing and I knew there was more to the story.  It turned out that Maggie had brought over an apple pie and a STRAWBERRY pie, not cherry.  However, when I responded the way I did, my sisters-in-laws became determined to get me a cherry pie.  They called all of the bakeries in the area but could only find a cherry pie in South Salt Lake.  They were actually thinking about going to get it, but realized that they had too much to do to prepare for the funeral and the family gathering to make that trip especially in the late afternoon traffic.  So Charon called Maggie and asked her to bake me a cherry pie.  Maggie had never made a cherry pie before, but headed to the store for pie filling and baked an amazing and beautiful pie (sorry, no picture--it wasn't a picture taking day.) It was that pie that was delivered to my door after a long day at the ER.

And that, my friends, is how God works through other people to remind you that you are loved, you are known, and therefore you can do another day!

In the words of one of my favorite hymns-- (second verse)

In ev’ry condition—in sickness, in health,

In poverty’s vale or abounding in wealth,

At home or abroad, on the land or the sea—

As thy days may demand, as thy days may demand,

As thy days may demand, so thy succor shall be.