Tender Mercies of The Lord

During our stay at Seattle we became acquainted with two couples that were patients at the same time we were. There were others that we enjoyed quick visits with, but these two couples caught our attention and tugged on our hearts. The only socializing we did while we were there was to smile, wave, say hi, and enjoy a few brief conversations while waiting for appointments. However, we did feel a love and concern for these two couples and enjoyed seeing and visiting with them on occasion. Even just seeing them across the room would bring us joy. We wanted to follow their progress and prayed for their recovery.

But we learned some sad news this week. The Lord had other plans for Robert Eugene Hawkins - recovery was not to be his. He died on January 28, at age 68, "from complications following a long battle with leukemia". We are saddened at this news, and found that we were more attached than we even realized. We do find some comfort in the fact that he is now free from pain and worldly sorrow, and he is surely happy. We find comfort knowing that our Savior's plan provides a way for families to be together forever and we pray for this to be the case for this family. We will continue to pray for Mary, his wife. She is a great and pleasant woman who always seemed to have a smile on her face. She informs us that she has great family and friends at her side supporting her along this new path and we know that the Lord will give her strength. For these things, we are grateful.

One way to combat sorrow is to talk about it, therefore I write this post. I also wanted to pay tribute in some small way to both couples who gave us comfort and joy during our stay in Seattle. We consider those small and simple moments (when we would see them, wave, say hi, or have short little visits in the waiting rooms) tender mercies from the Lord and we are grateful for them. We are truly glad that we had them and will continue to cherish them, forever! They are good people and surely the Lord is pleased with them.

So, to the Hawkins and Aguiar families we say, THANK YOU! Thank you for being the kind of people we enjoyed seeing and visiting with during those long months at SCCA. You brought joy to our hearts in simple and special ways.

To all who have touched our lives in small and simple ways - WE THANK YOU!