When my dad asked me if I would like to speak at grandma’s memorial, I wasn’t sure where to even begin. I have so many wonderful memories of my grandma over the years. But just like with a book, sometimes if you just skip to the end… you can get the best summary of someone’s life. So I want to tell a little story about the last few weeks of grandma’s life from my perspective.
A few weeks ago, I was standing in the Meijer toy aisle looking at model dinosaurs when I received a phone call from my mom. Coupled with the sounds of my 4 year old making roaring noises, my mom told me that my grandma’s cancer had come on full force. It was an aggressive cancer and treatments wouldn’t help her any. It was only a matter of time.
You know…life is kind of funny like that. When you think time should stop… it just keeps going. Here I am listening to my son ask 100 questions about dinosaurs in the middle of Meijer, when all I want to do is take a moment to go see my grandma.
And because life doesn’t just stop and because I am a mom to two young kids, we spent to next two weeks battling head colds, trying desperately to get well enough so that we could go see her.
It was also during this time that I had a miscarriage, and a couple days later I received a sweet text from grandma, “So very sorry for your baby. I will see him soon.” Because that is the kid of woman that she was… Always thinking of others.
With her health fading quickly, we were finally able to make a trip to go see her. Because the cancer had already taken its toll on her body, she was exhausted. Between the constant flow of nurses, aids, friends and family… she didn’t have a lot of energy to spare.Over the course of 3 days, I found myself unable to spend much time with her.
My last evening there, my dad mentioned that grandma was feeling discouraged because she had such little energy and was unable to keep her eyes open to read her Bible. So the next morning I prayed earnestly to have a little one on one time with her… and the Lord answered my prayer.
I snuck down to their cozy little house just as everyone was starting to get around for the day and asked her if she would like me to read her Bible to her. She was thrilled. I asked her if she had a favorite passage that she wanted me to read, and she suggested that I just read that days Daily Bread. After spending several minutes rummaging through a drawer trying to find the May edition of the Daily Bread, we resorted to reading where she left off in April.
I almost laughed out loud when I saw it… Hebrews 11. For those of you who are not familiar with that chapter, it is considered the “faith chapter.” I read about Abraham, Noah, Isaac and Moses. Over and over again, I read the words, “These all died by faith.”
When I finished reading the chapter, I looked at her and said, “Someday soon we’ll be able to say, Linda Den Bleyker died by faith.”
You see she was a faithful woman. She was faithful to her God. Even until the very end, she craved time with him. She was faithful to pray and talk with him daily. She was faithful to her husband and followed him all across the globe: from Michigan to Texas to Alaska and back to Michigan… all while serving God in the process. She was faithful to her church and regularly attended. She was faithful to her 3 children and trained them up in the way they should go. She was faithful to her 9 grandchildren and 17 great grand children by living out a godly example.
On May 16, 2017, she was surrounded by her family when she went home to be with her Savior.
If there is one thing we can take from her life, it is this… She died by faith.