Merilee

Life is so very interesting --- stuff simply happens.  I thought until this morning I had written this week’s blog. The thought was, “So what makes January 1^st so very different from December 31^st?”

Then this morning happened.  I received a Facebook Message from a young lady, I truly admire, Amber Auer.

Sent at 9:59pm on Monday, it simply said “please call me asap”.  Immediately I panicked, you see Amber is an adopted granddaughter for me, the daughter of Merilee Brinson. 

In this day and age of instant communication a quick search on Facebook allowed me to discover Merilee died Monday, “t-boned” by a truck.  Not her fault, but she was gone!

WOW, how your life focus can instantly change! 

Merilee was on my “TO CALL LIST”.  However, honestly calling was not a high priority, simply an “around to it” this next weekend.

However that “round to it” call will never occur, she is gone.  This outcome has reminded me I need to really consider priorities, actions, and life.

Another Facebook Friend, Amber Chin not long ago posted “If you were really committed to writing in a journal for a life change, how long would you suggest it to be?  90?  150 days?  365 days?”

My response was, “every day for the rest of your life”. 

We all have priorities.  We all want our life to be perfect, end in a glamorous fashion. However sometimes it simply doesn’t work that way.

Merilee’s death reminded me of this today. 

She wasn’t perfect.  There were days when we’d laugh, and cry in the same call.  We’ve even slam down the phone on each other.  Once I told her, “You got yourself there, walk home!”  We fought like Mom and daughter.   But we loved one another!  Merilee changed, I changed - we grew together.

For you see we had a back story: 

Merilee and I met in Cross Roads at Central Christian Church.  I was a small group coach for a women’s co-dependency group.  Weekly, as a group we’d talk and walk through life together. There were tears, lots of them but we encouraged each another to take just one more baby step in recovery. 

Now years later I can see those baby steps have had major impacts in both our lives.  Merilee became an adult Mom to both girls, a nurturing grandmother and she even graduated nursing school, passed her exams and became a licensed nurse - a lifelong dream.

Yes, life is tough, and Merilee is gone way before any of us are willing to let go of her.  However, as she and I often quoted together, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path”.  (Proverbs 3:5)