Prayers For My Mother

I was informed this evening that my mother suffered a heart attack last night. She's had an irregular heartbeat for a while. Apparently she's been having difficulty for the last few days and could not climb the steps in her house without becoming exhausted. Last night she knew she was in trouble. But, being the hard-headed German/English "set your jaw" sort of woman she is, she gathered her important papers and laid them out on the kitchen table (wouldn't want anyone to have to dig around for those), unlocked her front door and turned off the alarm so they wouldn't have any trouble getting in when she called 911, picked up her portable phone and sat awake all night hoping it would pass.

Well, this morning she called the doctor and was instructed to go immediately to the emergency room (I chastised her this evening and asked her why she needed to be told that). She drove herself. I mean, after all, this a 76-year-old woman who last year fell down a flight of stairs onto a concrete floor in the dark and still managed to gather her broken arm and protruding bones and climb back up to inform her brother that she needed help prior to going into shock.

Anyway, the hospital immediately took her in and her heart rate was three times the normal rate. They ran some quick tests and confirmed the heart attack. They gave her meds that brought her rate back to normal and she's resting with oxygen and heart meds. When I spoke to her this evening she was in good spirits. When I asked her why she didn't bother to inform her children, she said, "I have a good reason. It's called denial."

That's my mom. Her mom died at 92 and her grandmother died at 99. So she is convinced she still has lots of years left in her. And I hope that's true.

Those of you who know her also know that GCA could not exist in its present form had it not been for her support and generosity. One of the great joys of my life has been seeing my mother grow from relative agnosticism to a loving embrace of the teaching of God's free and sovereign grace. She is one of those people who will simply step from life into life.

So, please keep her in your prayers. After all, no matter how old you get, no one can take the place of your mother.