Marilyn was healthy!

        To all who are acquainted with CROSSwalk People Helpers:

You may have heard me talk about Marilyn: I have done so to students,

clients and humanitarian workers here & half way around the world.

        Marilyn died last week. I expected her to die 6 years ago. That's

why I wrote down what she told me back then. It was so good; I knew I had to

save it to share it at her funeral. I did so last week, six years after

I expected her to pass away. She was healthy but she had cancer. Cancer in the

bones made her too unstable to walk. Cancer in the bone of her skull had to

be removed.

        Talk about a bad day, Marilyn was at a hospital getting a

checkup on the new metal plates in her skull when she needed a rest

room. She stopped into the public rest room at McDonalds and caught her

wheelchair in the floor drain. She tipped over on the bathroom floor,

breaking her leg. This was her good leg by now since the other one had

been amputated due to the cancer. When most of us are having a bad day,

there is no good side to anything. Not so with Marilyn who was so

thankful this all happened at the hospital. 

        Six years ago, I took communion to her urban apartment and as we prayed 

together she told me, "Pastor Mike, I feel so sorry for people who don't have

 what I have!" 

        I was sure she meant that her faith and hope in God helped her 

through the constant pain and deep loss this disease was putting her 

through. That was not what she meant, "No I mean I feel sorry for 

people who don't have cancer or something like me!"  

I realized why, when she added,

"You see, every day I know when I get up that I am going to need

GOD to help me get through the day with His joy and His love.

It's wonderful with Him; I feel sorry for people who don't know how much

they need Him and how much He can do for them."

        Last Friday, six years of suffering later, I did finally tell her

story at her funeral. Through those 6 years of increasing pain and loss I saw

her faith remain exactly where it was back then. I told her story and

everyone who knew her was not surprised. I have told it to depressed and stressed

people half way round the world. What I want to say about this cancer

ridden lady of God is this: MARILYN WAS HEALTHY! Whenever I went

to see her in her pitiful condition at the next hospital or hospice she

was the first to ask me very sincerely: "How are you doing?"

MARILYN WAS HEALTHY; HOW ARE YOU?

written by Mike Coen on May 19, 2000