Mom Reiff

I have not written much about Terry’s Mom.  I called her Mom or Mom Reiff.  She was a strong woman and because I did not know how to be assertive with her I did not accept the fullness of her goodness.  But there were many times when we were very close and I loved her deeply and miss her sometimes so much.  I wish we could talk now and I hope someday we will be able to again.  I have little doubt we will.  There was one time when we were especially close.  When she was about the age I am now, she got cancer.  I’m not sure of it’s name but it was a bad one and it had gone to her lymph nodes.  At the time there was a 50% chance of survival.  She and Dad Reiff had come down to see us in Mississippi as they did at least twice a year.  She had found a lump in her groin and asked Terry to check it out.  She told her she should go to her doctor in Independence where they lived and have it examined there because it was suspicious.  Judy told me it was 7only the second time she had seen her Dad cry.  The other time being when their son Mike was killed in Vietnam.  We were busy with our little family then but they were in our thoughts and prayers often.  When they came to visit she had lost all her hair and wore a wig.  Mom Reiff was not one to speak openly about her faith but she was a woman of great faith.  I sometimes did not recognize that.  Somewhere in my keepsakes I have a testimony she gave at church during that time.  She had been deeply moved by a scripture at church.  It is the familiar one, “They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah.  I believe God confirmed to her heart that this scripture could be true for her.  I know she clung to it.  During that time I was in a bible study and came upon another scripture, “O rest in the Lord.  Wait, wait patiently for Him and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit to God all of your goings, and place in God all of your trusting…”  I  wrote both of those scriptures on a board  with a picture of an eagle on it. And gave it to her.  Another woman we knew died during that time of the same kind of cancer.  Terry’s Mom had  a hard struggle.  She fell a lot because of the chemo and how it affected her legs.  She was sick a lot.  But she made it through and she and Dad had many years together after that time.  Many good things happened as a result of her cancer.  She and my Mom got so close.  For awhile my Mom wrote to her every day.  But that’s another story.  I think it’s the true meaning of the scripture that says that all things work for good for those who are called according to His purposes.  I love you Mom .  I’m looking forward to our talk.