I was having coffee with a friend a week ago Saturday when I received a phone call from one of our employees. It’s very rare they call us on the weekend. I picked up the call and found out that this employees mother had passed away – taking her own life. He was gutted. She had actually worked for us for about a year 5/22 to 5/23.
I have now been to her funeral (yesterday) and although I am extremely sad, I am working on moving forward as we will want to help her son do so too. I found out a lot at that service about the different struggles/demons she has fought throughout her life. Ultimately the demons/devil won. The preacher did a pretty good job with the entire service until he said God allowed it to happen therefore God wanted this. I just have to say that my Bible says, “The thief cometh not but to steal, kill, and destroy. I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” It is not God’s will for us to die.
This woman was at her best/healthiest when she was regularly attending church and volunteering with the teens and in other avenues. You have to wonder how much the pandemic and the taking away of in person relationships affect /affected those who have a history of mental health issues. All I know is I am a better person for knowing her and having her in our lives these past 10 years (she worked at our eye doctor’s office before her one year with us.) In 2018 when I was actively “RECLAIMING PATTY” I found “Same Here – The Global Mental Health Alliance. I even shared my story to help normalize mental health. We all struggle, but we don’t talk about it. Just like I said earlier, I found out at the funeral service that this woman had struggled almost all her life. I did not know that. She did not talk about it. I believe there is no truer statement then you never know what someone is going through, so just be KIND.
Here is just one of the programs SAME HERE is getting into schools for our children. Here is my story from back in 2018.
Now if you have read this far, thank you. I just needed to get that in writing as writing helps me move on. Today is Super Bowl Sunday and I thought you might enjoy seeing the Super Bowl commercial I put together for our business. It will play locally. It was fun to make.
Also a small update on Humira. This coming Tuesday (in two days) I will take the second shot. I felt improvement almost immediately after the first shot, but I do feel like it’s wearing off some (not a lot, but some.) I have had hip bursitis for 5 years now. I once got a cortisone shot in that area and for 2 days I felt great and that was it. So I did not want another shot. I’ve just lived with the discomfort. Well the first Humira shot, made that area feel well too. But today (almost two weeks later) I can feel the discomfort (on a way lesser scale). What an added blessing if Humira helps my hip bursitis as well as my RA inflammation. I’ll keep you updated after the 2nd shot on Tuesday.
Thank you for clarifying that God did not want this lady to take her life! I hate it when pastors pulled that!!!! My family doctor is a Christian. A phenomenal picture of a caring, understanding, Christian man! When I started on prescription depression meds about 25 years ago he talked to me about some Christians believe that this is a problem of faith! No it’s not!!! It’s a chemical imbalance and it’s time that Christians wise up and quit putting the blame on lack of faith!!!!!!
AMEN!