Patty

Sometimes there are friends who are such a blessing to us it we cannot imagine life without them. Patty was one such person in my life. For years we knew who each other were but our paths never crossed...until we began ministry training for a program called Community of Hope through the St. Luke's Hospital System. After being "locked" in a room each Sunday for 3 1/2 hours for 14 weeks - we got to know each other VERY well!

I treasure the years she was in my life. I hope to remember her smiling face and loving words the rest of my life.

We shared life's ups and downs from very serious matters to the sublime. Her mother-in-law was a very unique woman. When anyone visited her mother-in-law, we called it going to the Big House. One Christmas Eve, I gave her a beautiful cross taped to a miniature bottle of wine with a card saying to keep the wine in her purse in case of emergency at the Big House. She laughed so hard, her husband was too stunned to react since I handed it to her before the Christmas Eve service began that night. I told Joe the Lord knew I bought the bottle as a joke, so why not give it to her at church.

She was at my side during the 11.5 months dad was in the hospital. I remember cringing a week after dad died when she popped over with a meal. My house was so messy - it looked as if the washer and dryer had exploded in the den and there was dust and dog hair everywhere. I told her to sit on some of the laundry so she would remain dog hair free. We laughed until we cried.

We loved to eat a local dive our husbands preferred not to frequent. One more than 1 occasion we headed to our dive for lunch and our husbands would see each other at another restaurant and laugh. She hoped to feel well enough to go to our dive again for breakfast or lunch, sadly that plan did not materialize, but several of our plans did.


We did numerous Bible Studies together, one of her favorites was Beth Moore's Psalms of Ascent. So I leave you with this, Psalm 121:


1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.


3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.


5 The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.


7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.