No Endings

A now deteriorating cemetery in Ripley, Oklahoma is the final resting place of many of the family of Richard and Elizabeth (Patton) May.  The younger sister of my great great grandpa, Elizabeth was born in 1853 in western Virginia on a prosperous farm to a large family.  Her childhood was interrupted by the Civil War and family members enlisted, fought and died, some just miles from her home.  Likely, however, the most difficult loss occurred when she was eleven years old and her mother passed away after delivering a baby girl who lived a month and then died as well.
 
Married in 1869, Elizabeth and her new husband followed the migration of many neighbors and family including her two brothers first to Kansas and then further west to Payne County, Oklahoma where they put down roots creating their own successful farm. While economically stable, Elizabeth’s losses continued.
Bend Cemetery
The mother of six children, three had died by 1900 and a year later another son, Lewis, succumbed to tuberculosis at the age of twenty.   Perhaps it was the death of her oldest son in 1908 that broke her, for when her husband’s will was probated in 1909 he left everything to her in the event that she was cured and released from the state mental hospital where she was currently residing.  Her last surviving daughter passed away in 1913 and in the 1920 Census, Elizabeth is living on the family farm with her single brother.  She had outlived her husband and all six of her children.  So many endings, so much loss.
 

On Friday, I was privileged to be in a sealing room of the Bountiful Temple with a lifelong friend who five years earlier had faced the crushing pain of the sudden death of her husband. Now she and her sons knelt at the altar of the temple, a symbol of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and were sealed to their husband and father.  Afterwards she stood with her sons in front of the mirrors that go on forever and shared her witness that her family could go on forever and there never had to be an enduring end.  Because of Jesus Christ, everything that is broken can be healed, everything that is wrong can be made right and everything that is good can go on forever and ever.  Because of Him, no end, no loss, no sorrow needs to be permanent but can be replaced with joy. “I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains.

 Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.” (Alma 36:21).  Jesus Christ can and will “wipe away all tears from [our] eyes” and turn our pain to joy as we come unto Him.

One thought on “No Endings”

Comments are closed.