My fellow first-graders and I were ritualistically threatened to be sent to Mr. Williams. He was the red-eyed high school principal rumored to spank children with his electric paddle. Our teacher would march us in a line up the pea-gravel hill, believing we were about to be electrocuted, only to stop halfway and give us […]
I was a witness, taking heart notes as Daddy fought all night to save the calf. We’d just come home late from a Broadway play. It was about a lion cub that was so overcome with guilt, he forgot who he was and how much his family needed him. So on his knees, still wearing […]
I used to wonder why anyone would drink poison on purpose and hope to live. You’ll drink deadly poison and not be harmed at all. ~ Jesus {Mark 16:18} But then a year ago they sewed a little heart-shaped box inside my chest. It was so my body could drink poison—the chemotherapy that helped save […]
While you sip your coffee, may I share something with you so maybe we can wrestle out from under today before it begins? Because I suspect you’ve already been “thinking” this morning— Things like… When will I learn? I’ll probably just mess it up. If people only knew…. Such an idiot. Such a temper. So […]
I struggle to find where this begins because God was preparing and providing for us years before we knew I had cancer. I had the kind for which there is no screening, but by God’s mercy, it was discovered during a minor procedure at Stage III. It was as if He’d spoken to the disease […]
I imagine what it would’ve been like if 2018 Me had written a letter to myself this time last year. Dear Sally Anne… Would I tell myself about the cancer? Would I write, brace yourself—this is going to be hard? Maybe, but that wouldn’t be helpful. And it would unnecessarily wreck the pre-cancer part of […]
Today is Day 21. Today would be chemo day before I was mercifully healed. For the next several hours, I’d watch the clear bag of poison drink into me, praying it was killing only the bad stuff. But that’s over, hallelujah. I still circle Day 21 on my calendar, because it’s sacred to me. […]
There’s a very special bell chemo patients get to ring on their final treatment. It’s a sound that dins throughout the building, drawing instant and genuine applause from every stranger within earshot. I got to ring that bell today. I don’t mean to be crass, but I felt like I was ringing hell’s doorbell, showing […]
Soon after celebrating the impossible and holding the light of life in my arms when our first daughter was born, something very dark and unfamiliar took me over. I’d lose the hours. It took me all day to complete a simple task. I had everything I’d ever prayed for, yet I grieved. Each time shower […]
If you’re like me, you truly don’t know what to do for friends in times of crisis. Since I’ve been sick, our people have amazed me with creative ways they’ve blessed us, so I thought I’d make a list to share with you. Here they are, as random as can be… 1. Hanging baskets or […]