Posts for Tag: friend

My Friend Cindy

A friend passed over this weekend and I felt the need to say a few words. I will not be able to attend her service, as Cindy and I were online friends. I never had the honor of meeting her face to face. We had a few conversations on the phone, and many Facebook chats, but our face to face meeting will now have to wait until it is my time to cross over.

 If I had to choose a word or phrase to describe Cindy Perez, it would be kind; she was a kind person with a loving spirit. We first met while writing tributes for our fallen warriors, on a Facebook page called Military Wall of Honor. Writing tributes for these beautiful young people, killed in war, was difficult; it placed a great weight upon the soul. Our tributes were carefully researched, with a desire to know the person who died in our service and a desire to make our readers know them. We sought with all our hearts to give honor to the fallen, and inspire within the hearts of our readers, some measure, some knowledge of the terrible price that had been paid. Cindy was faithful in her writing, and you could feel her love and mercy when you read her words.

While serving with Cindy as a writer, there were difficulties, the kind of difficulties that always arise when you put people together, and especially when it is doing such an emotionally draining task. During these times we talked often. Most of us vented our frustration, but Cindy rarely did, I cannot recall ever having her say or agree with a bad word about someone. She tried to find the good in them, and tried to show everyone else.

 The time came for my own son to deploy into harm’s way. Having written the tributes for so many, needless to say, I was afraid, I knew by my research and writing and the research and writing of my fellow tribute writers, the reality of war and what my son was stepping into. Cindy prayed faithfully for my son, and she encouraged me in every way she could. She helped me to get through the deployment and helped me along this path of learning to trust God.

 I regret not getting to know her better; I regret never having the opportunity to meet in person, to sit together over a cup of coffee and just chat.

 I do not grieve for her for I know where she now resides. My friend Cindy has finished her race and she has been welcomed home. For her there are no more sorrows, no more tears, no more cancer and she is with Him, and there truly is no better place for one to be. I envy her a bit, but my race is not yet over, so I will run on, and I will use all that she taught me to run it better, until one day my time will come, my race will be done and then we will have plenty of time to sit and chat and to get to know one another in person.

Thank you Cindy, for the love and the grace you freely handed out, thank you for the prayers you sent out, for me, for my son, for my family. Your family has been in my prayers that God will grant them all grace and peace and that they will know, as I know, that you are okay, you are more than okay. The Healing Rain has come.