This column is mostly for searching and finding our ancestors but sometimes it happens that someone close becomes a member of our past when not very much time has passed - in short, he or she becomes an ancestor to someone sooner than what we like. It so happens that my children's father is about to join the ranks of those who have gone on ahead of the rest of us. He will join his brother and my brother, his parents and my parents and numerous other relations that have left us here to wait till it is our time to go. He will be missed and mourned by his children and by those who think of him as a father, though he did not father them. We will write in our books of the dead his name, his age, when he was born and when he passed away, and maybe whom he was married to and when. The Lord above wrote his name in His book many years ago and like many before him I have always prayed that those names are not stricken out for some reason we may not know of. We will lay him to rest in a small country cemetery and many will come to say their goodbye's and to pay their respects to him and his family. Nieces and nephews and siblings plus those of the new family he married into will all be there. We will cry and talk about him to ease the pain. We will hug and hold on to each other in our sadness. But if God is merciful and he was blessed, the passing person will be in a beautiful place with those he knew before they left us here. Maybe they will converse and talk about us here. Maybe they will hug and hold on to each other in gladness and joy of reunion. Maybe they will ask when will we join them and maybe they will get an answer and maybe not. Maybe they will look down upon us here and wish they could have said one last thing to make a difference in our lives, to change us in such a way that we would be waiting expectantly for that final day, to join them where they are. Maybe they wish they could tell us what it is like there. Maybe we wish we really knew or could know. Bless us all, we can know, by what the Bible, God's Holy Word, does tell us what it is like there. We just have to believe the Word. I believe the Word. I believe all those who have left me behind here on this earth, are waiting patiently for all the rest of us. They know we have go through many things before we can come to that realization that if only we believe it is that way, then it will be that way. Who wants to believe any other way? Who wants to believe the Devil and all his lies? Who wants to live in fear all their days - do you? You will if you believe the Devil, but if you believe the Word and in Jesus and His Father, then there will never be any fear of what is here on this earth or what lies ahead after we leave this mortal temporary body made of flesh.Goodbye John! Say hello to my parents and your parents for me. Run to them, let go of this world and leave it for the better one, the one without pain and trouble. We will miss you but always know we will join you someday to. God speed, darling.
