Goodbye

Dearest Family, Friends, and Classmates, I doubt that many of you have ever received a letter or read a Blog quite like this one ... and I've certainly never written one like it before. Some of you may consider it slightly maudlin, premature, or even a form of self pity. But I hope not ... it's not my intent.

As you know, I was diagnosed last April with a rare and aggressive form of neck cancer and was told the typical life expectancy was about 12 months. Oddly enough, I never much went through the classic "denial, anger, bargaining" stages of death, but went straight to "depression and acceptance", while still vowing to fight hard. The overwhelming sadness at the thought of separation from my family and friends and newly acquired grandchildren and retirement lifestyle was certainly an issue.

Early on I coped mostly with anti-depressants. But through the Blog that my son set up for easy mutual communications with friends and family (http://redcarpetmusic.net/v-web/b2/index.php), it became clear that I had a massive network of supporters, loved ones, and connections from throughout my life that had been for the most part untapped as a source of inspiration and strength and love. So this (and regular emails for those who can't/don't blog) has now become a much better anti-depressant ... far superior to the medicinal kind which has offered little but hope over the months.

But on August 5th last year, I found the best anti-depressant ever when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. The impetus for my reaffirmation of faith after many years of faith denial came from a powerful combination of my immediate family, a dynamic Presbyterian Minister, who married my daughter and husband, and strong expression of faith found liberally expressed in your messages of support and love. I selfishly wanted that for myself!

So now I look to the power of God's word as found in the Holy Bible but the most profound inspiration has come from the great numbers of you who have related stories to me about the influence the blog has had on your life. I recently read "The Purpose Driven Life", by Rick Warren and firmly believe that my purpose ... although somewhat late in life ... is to reach out to others for their eternal salvation while also achieving my own, by publicly accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

Goodbye my dear family, friends and classmates ... I'll be watching and praying for the day we all meet again,

God Bless you all,

Harvey

March 20, 1944 - April 8th, 2005