Today is Mother’s Day. Congratulations and thanksgiving to mothers!!!
It is also a marker day for sad days in my life. On Mother’s Day two years ago my family had the burial service for my father. Daddy died just four months after my mother. They lived long and full and good years. Both were graduated to a heavenly home free from the pains and diseases of worn bodies.
So many times in the last two years I have wished to share events in my life with them … new wife (after being single again for 17 years) … new home … new grandchild … vacation experiences … and on and on. I give thanks for two very loving and patient parents.
On Mother’s Day ten years ago I had just returned the night before from a wonderful mission trip to Venezuela. Our team helped construct the first Methodist church in the country. Fourteen of us men from Atlanta had worked together for a week in a remote area.
Part of the week we were joined by four young adults from Mt. Pisgah UMC in Alpharetta. Carlos Gonzalez was a seminary student who directed the church’s Hispanic Ministry. Ray Lathem was the son of Jane and Warren Lathem, the church senior pastor. Roger and Dana Lane had just gotten married six months earlier.
On return to the USA the four from Mt. Pisgah church were on a flight schedule slightly ahead of the rest of us. When the other fourteen of us landed in Miami we immediately heard the news that a plane bound for Atlanta had just crashed in the Florida Everglades shortly after takeoff.
Our minds instantly thought of the probability that it was the flight with our friends from Mt. Pisgah, but our hearts did not want to accept the possibility.
Painfully we watched the news on television screens in the boarding area, as I frantically and unsuccessfully tried to call the airline switchboard to know if indeed our friends had been onboard.
Finally after we arrived at the baggage claim area in Atlanta I made a call to the Lathems to confirm that sadly our friends were in the fatal crash.
The following afternoon on Mother’s Day I visited the Lathems’ home to express my grief and condolences. I took Warren and Jane a figurine of an angel that I had bought as a souvenir in Venezuela. Jane expressed her thanks to make a very special addition to her angel collection.
The next day I was able to talk on the phone with the parents of both Roger and Dana Lane who lived in North Carolina. They wanted so much to hear the story of what the last days of their children had been like in Venezuela.
So on Mother’s Day my heart is stirred not only by the memory and treasure of my loving Mother and Father, but also the tragic loss of my four young new friends.
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