Plan B

Today is my grandmother's birthday.  She passed away in 2010, but it is still a day of celebration of her life for my family.  It also puts me in mind of other members of our family we have lost.  

Next month, it will be four years since my uncle passed away suddenly.  It left his immediate family, as well as our extended family, reeling with the loss.  Why did God take him so soon?  How were we supposed to go on if he wasn’t here anymore?  People who experience a sudden loss often feel like they are adrift for some time after the event.  My aunt is still trying to come to terms with what she and my cousins refer to as “Plan B.”  

There have been many changes in our lives since then.  One of my cousins got married.  My aunt moved halfway across the country to be closer to her sister.  We made the decision as a family to sell my grandmother’s house, which we had kept and rented after her death.

The Utah contingent of our family lost our link to Southern California.  My brother commented at the time that it was like a line out of Tolkien:  “The time of the elves [or in this case, the immigrant members of our family in California] is over.”  For us as well, there have been implications:  new health tests, lifestyle changes, and different vacation plans (if any at all) than we were used to.

Life throws curve balls at us.  It can be a test of the strength of our will and our faith how we respond to these challenges.  This week, a parishioner shared with me some wisdom that had been shared with her at the time of her own loss:  “God didn’t take him.  He welcomed him home.”

Going through dramatic and traumatic changes can alter us as individuals.  Do we turn away from God at times like these, or do we embrace Him and turn to Him to console us?  It is a choice all of us will have to make at one time or other in our lives.