Four Generations in 105--A Sacred Circle of Life

Baby Tirza with new mother Susan, great-aunt Missy and great-grandmother Esther

In a house which becomes a home,

one hands down and another takes up
the heritage of mind and heart,
laughter and tears, musings and deeds.
Love, like a carefully loaded ship,
crosses the gulf between the generations.
Therefore, we do not neglect the ceremonies
of our passage: when we wed, when we die,
and when we are blessed with a child;
When we depart and when we return;
When we plant and when we harvest.

- from "Generation to Generation", by Antoine de Saint

Yesterday Alma Jean and I went to see my next-to-oldest sister Esther, 85-year-old spouse of the late Robert Yoder, at the Lynchburg Baptist Hospital. Our dear Esther suffered a major stroke Thursday night, spent some time in the ICU at Lynchburg General Hospital, and was then moved to Lynchburg Baptist where she is receiving hospice care.

We were told that the entire right hemisphere of her brain has been irreparably damaged, yet Esther occasionally emerged from her semi-comatose state and was surprisingly lucid. She was able to recognize us and even asked where our oldest son was living and how he was doing.

A devoted mother of eight, gentle queen Esther was a beloved grandmother to thirty, and while at LBH  became a great-grandmother for the 19th time when late Friday night, August 31, 7 lb. 8 oz. Tirza Richelle, first child of Susan and Karlin Schrock was born at that same hospital. Tirza is a Hebrew name meaning "delight". In the Bible, Tirzah was one of the five daughters of Zelophehad who asked for and received an inheritance from her father, something unprecedented in that time. 

When Susan was discharged yesterday morning, the proud parents brought their newborn to the arms of her great-grandma for what was both a welcoming greeting and a solemn goodbye before leaving for home, and for somehow completing the precious circle of life. It was if Tirza was receiving the full blessing of her family's inheritance, with four generations bonding as one, mingling emotions and memories in Room 105.

It was a truly a God moment, a holy time for joy, tears and for realizing how precious life is--and how fleeting.

photo by Karlin Schrock