News from Alison & Jeff Linton

My mom, Jean Johnsrud, went home to be with the Lord this afternoon after a valiant battle with emphysema (diagnosed in Jan 1997). Having originally been told that she might not make it through her first hospitalization last March, Mom beat all the odds and today the Lord reunited Mom & Dad on what would have been their 59th wedding anniversary. Mom is free at last from all the pain, pneumonias, collapsed lung, repeated episodes of low pulse oxygen, steroid psychosis, infections, confusion, and at last count, trying to sleep in forty four different beds in the past ten months. Charlie & Patti and I were all with her this afternoon.... though at the time of Mom's passing only a very kind hospice nurse was at her bedside. The Lord knows. After seeing Mom go through so much, it is truly a blessing to know she is at peace. The moon, full tonight, even seemed strangely brighter. Yesterday, Susanna and Mel were with Mom and before they left read Revelations 22 and sang to Mom the old hymn Abide With Me...

Hold Thou thy cross before my closing eyes
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies
Heaven's morning breaks and Earth's vain shadows flee
In life, In death, O Lord... Abide with me.

Grateful for each of you,
Alison & Jeff for the family.