A year without Carlin

Hello Marcia.

I have thought many times of you and Carlin this past year. Today I went searching for your email address and recalled that Joy Locken had sent it to me last year. I also had the blog address and read your recent entry. I was pleased that you shared your heart. Hopefully others will see it and continue to lift up your family to the Lord.

 

In our day we move on from event to event with such speed that we forget about the continuing impact of losses, accidents, tragedies of all kinds. Maybe we don't forget but we are so drawn into the next event that no time is given to really reflect on what has happened and how it affects "the survivors" - the ones who remain with memories and who struggle to face life in a new dimension. I think your comments were "right on". God, who gives us the faculty of memory also sustains us by helping us recall, not just what we have lost but also what we still have.

 

Carlin and I were good friends at Briercrest and I am confident that we would have become better friends if our lives had been more "entwined". Given the opportunity I am sure we would have "spurred one another on toward love and good deeds". Many years ago we had lunch together in Vancouver and I recall his pleasure in recounting that his children and grandchildren "loved Jesus". This was his heart (and yours too), to see succeeding generations follow the Lord. He did his part well and now you are left to love and lead them alone. May you have great joy (amidst the sorrow) as you build into your grandchildren's lives in the years ahead. There is no greater pleasure for old people like us!

 

I have marked in my calendar to pray for you on the 19th. Your name is beside Sarah, my oldest granddaughter who returns from Israel that day after 3 months in "on site studies". How exciting to see them "fly higher" than we ever dreamed possible. May your delights be just as refreshing.

 

Sincerely

 

Wayne Attwood

Muriel Attwood