HE’D HAD ENOUGH
His
mama held my wife in a long hug, at the visitation. Standing next in line, I looked into the
casket, into the face of his dad, into the void. Then I heard his mom whisper to my wife,
repeatedly, “… we’ve made it through two days; we’ll make it through…”
Yesterday
morning, the garbage collectors noticed his lifeless body as they worked their
route for the day. The police came. Family came.
Their boy had “had enough”. Maybe
it was thoughtful to end it on the day he’d be quickly found?! He had sat down in his back yard and left
this world. Now they stood near his
casket and greeted well-wishers.
How
does one make sense of such? For over
two decades he had watched his body waste away with some nameless, crippling
disease. “Normal” was not a part of his
brief adult life – no wife, no children, no job, no …
I am
twelve years further down the road, but had known him, through church. I had been in his parents’ home for a couple
of Christmas church parties. I got his
gift one year in the “dirty-santa” gift exchange, a nice, pecan pie. Once, I made a two-hour trip with him to a
church men’s retreat near Montgomery. We
talked and laughed there and back.
Mike
spoke haltingly and with stuttering jerks.
His mind was way ahead of his mouth desperately trying to keep up. And his walk was similar. The athlete’s body was still in there
somewhere. But, he could not quite break
the huddle as he once could.
I
called a friend to confirm the rumor at the mill that Mike was gone when I
first heard it. We talked and he asked, “…
what do you say?” I remembered Psalm
103:14 – “He knows our situation…” God,
help us!
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