women of faith

Last weekend I went to women of faith in Billings. I went by myself but met some women from the Billings Community of Christ. It was the closest thing to visiting Mom I've done yet. Mom loved Women of Faith. She went many times. Once Mom, Diane, Susan and I went to the one in Spokane. We were wandering around after the Friday night session trying to find our car. I think we were walking too fast for Mom and she fell and broke her finger. Still not knowing where the car was we called an ambulance. While we were waiting and while the ambulance was getting ready to carry Mom, someone suggested we take a picture. After all it was part of the experience we were trying to have together. Mom was game for it, of course. We spent most of the night in the er. The next morning Mom and I still wanted to go to WoF. Susan and Diane wanted to rest. They felt sick. They went in the afternoon I think. I don't have good memories of that weekend especially since on the trip home I had the stomach cramps and diareha and we stopped at about every exit on the way back to Missoula.
Another time we went to WoF in Spokane Mom couldn't think straight and we had to be sure she got to the right place. I wonder now why she was so confused then. It was several years ago.
Regardless of the circumstances, Mom loved to be at WoF. She loved the women, had read their books. They were are part of her own healing. They were some of the women who helped her laugh during the most difficult times of her life.
Last weekend a picture of Barbara Johnson, who died of a brain tumor a few years ago, was on the screen above the speakers. Barbara started a ministry called Spacula Ministries I think. It was for those people who were scraping themselves off the ceiling because of their difficult circumstances. Barbara had 3 sons. One was killed in Vietnam. One was killed on a trip back from Alaska. The other one came to her to tell her he was gay and there was a long struggle with separation between them. She knew pain and she knew how to find humor in the middle of it. Sitting there at WoF last weekend, I suddenly realized that Mom was having her own WofFaith meeting up above. I think she is able to visit Barbara Johnson. I can see them talking and sharing together, laughing and crying. And how about Erma Bombeck? Margaret Reiff? I sat there and made my own list of those women Mom might be sharing with. Mrs. Elefson. Big Grandma. Grandma McDade.
Her own Mom. "Heaven is a wonderful place, filled with glory and grace. I want to see my Savior's face. Heaven is a wonderful place!" Mary, Jesus' Mother, Elizabeth, Abigail, Carla's twins, Marge (oh my gosh, can you hear them laugh?), Crystal, Grandma Cora...It's a good think eternity is long!