CQ Summer 2016

A
pril 29, 2014, my life changed in a way no parent
dreams of. My youngest son, James, at age 31, passed
away suddenly from a heart attack. James, my baby,
who was always talking about exercise and healthy
food, died from the #1 cause of death in the U.S. Shock set in –
sleep would not come and questions abounded. Why would God
take such a young man in the prime of life?
When there are no answers, the only thing that you can do is
turn to God and rely upon your faith that God has a plan for each
of our lives, and none of us know when the time comes for the
plan to be completed on this earth. I never broke down, and I
began to wonder if there was something wrong with me – that I
could not grieve like others around me. I remember talking to
Pastor Steve about my seeming lack of visible grief. His answer
was that God gives us strength in times when we need it the
most. Certainly I was devastated, but as I sat that night, what
came to me were answers to things that James had experienced
that made no sense at the time they happened. I began to see
that these things were all part of God’s plan for his life. He had
more experiences in his 31 years than many folks who live longer.
And he touched more people than most older adults.
I turned to prayer and scripture to get me through not only the
memorial and the graveside services, but writing thank you
cards, talking to his friends, comforting others. I could do these
things only because God was comforting and supporting me.
Everyone has a different grief journey. And the length of this
journey seems unending. In a recent bible study, we talked about
what a person does when they encounter a hindrance. James’
death was my hindrance and I took that and turned it into a passion
– a passion to educate people on heart disease, and heart
attack symptoms. That passion, coupled with the assurance of
eternal life, has guided me these last two years and my faith has
deepened. There are periods of immense sadness, tears abounding.
But, there are also periods of thankfulness to God for the
time I had with James and the light his life brought to me and so
many others.
— Jo Lynn Anderson
CLPC member since 1997
1511 El Dorado Boulevard | Houston, TX 77062-3499
281.488.6731 | www.clpc.org | info@clpc.org
CQ is a quarterly
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features stories from
our people. Our hope is
that these stories will
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