upstairs rooms. Words fail to describe
the comfort they brought to me as
they quietly settled into my routine,
blending it with theirs. For the fifteen
months they lived in my home, we
never had cross words, disagreements,
or tension. Just blessing. For fifteen
months I never spent the night alone
in my house, which helped ease my
sudden and acute loneliness in ways
they will perhaps never know.
Each night, my daughter would fix
dinner, then call us to the table for
a wonderful meal. After dinner our
devotions always focused on God’s
blessings. Night after night. Week
after week. Month after month. Some
nights, Morrow and Traynor would
sense my spirit was down, and then
they would get up, stand over me with
their hands on me, and as Traynor
traced the Hebrew letters for “YHWH”
on my forehead, they prayed God’s
blessing over me: “The Lord bless you
and keep you; the Lord make his face
shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you and
give you peace.” And I was comforted.
the stops when my father moved to
Heaven in February 2018. I received
the news by telephone when I was
in the presence of a dear friend. She
immediately wrapped her arms around
me and prayed as we both wept. From
that moment forward, I was comforted
by my family who surrounded me and
by hundreds of friends who left so
many voice mails and sent so many
text messages to my cell phone that I
had to silence it.
THE
I knew my daughter and son-in-law
were also grieving, but I was poignantly
reminded that the Holy Spirit comforts
us through the love and care of those
around us. They allowed themselves to
be the channel of the Spirit’s comfort,
as God promised to “[comfort] us in all
our troubles, so that we can comfort
those in any trouble with the comfort
we ourselves have received from God.”
The Comforter seemed to pull out all
I’ll never forget riding in the motorcade
as we escorted Daddy the 120 miles
f ro m A s h ev i l l e , n e a r o u r f a m i l y
home, where he had been living,
to Charlotte, North Carolina, his
childhood hometown, where he
would be buried. The route had been
previously published, and the people
of North Carolina poured out to pay
their respects. For the entire route,
any cars not already lined up beside
the road pulled over and stopped—
on both sides of the interstate. Tens
Solutions • 7