SOMETIMES, A BROTHER JUST NEEDS CHEERRING UP

Have you ever done a good deed without realizing it at the time? I've had the blessing of being a blessing to somebody else quite a few times. One of those "divine appointments" happened on a Greyhound bus traveling from North Battleford, Saskatchewan to Edmonton, Alberta.

I had been visiting my sister whose husband worked in North Battleford. As I settled in my seat on that gloomy November day, a young man sat down next to me. Though I would have rather listened to my radio, we made small talk as the bus headed west.

"If you were to die tonight, where would you go?" he asked. Being a Christian myself, I recognized his question and what he had in mind in asking it.

He smiled when I told him that I was a believer. Throughout the rest of that five-hour trip, we spoke of how we came to Christ and where we attended church. We became so wrapped up in our conversation that the hours flew by.

As the bus entered the outskirts of Edmonton, my new friend said, "I feel so much better now that we talked. I was in a car accident so I had to take the Greyhound back home. Talking with you really cheered me up."

I felt astonished that I helped this dear brother in Christ. People throughout my life gave me the distinct impression that I wasn't much good at doing anything. I'm sure the Lord led me and this man to sit beside each other for the very purpose of building us up spiritually.

I wrote about the many times when church people discouraged me in How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity/i>. Read how God led me out of that toxic church at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Virtual Bookworm Publishers.

SHARED MEMORIES SHARED NO LONGER

Have you ever noticed how precious it is to share memories with family members who experienced what you did? Diane was one such sibling. When we were young, my sister and I went everywhere together. Whether it was mischief or play, we enjoyed many happy hours exploring the small city of Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta.

Then the province's education officials decided that I couldn't be educated in public school, even though I passed the first grade. I was exiled to Jericho Hill School for the Deaf and Blind in Vancouver,British Columbia, five-hundred miles from all I knew and loved. As the years passed, Diane found local friends to take my place.

As we matured, we grew apart. She had her husband and later her children to occupy her attention. I had my various adult concerns that took up my time as well. Diane moved two-hundred-and-forty miles away to a city called North Battleford, Saskatchewan while I stayed in Edmonton. We visited each other on a few occasions but she was often too busy to reminisce about our carefree childhood days.

In the spring of 2004, Diane suffered from a disease called Budd-Chiari syndrome. This rare disease caused her blood to become sticky so that it clogged her liver's exit vein. My siblings and I expected her to recover after the two operations she had performed on her but, on July the third, her internal organs shut down.

Diane's funeral and interment were held at Rabbit Lake, Saskatchewan on the fourteenth. Leaving my three house bunnies alone was a concern for me but I decided that they could survive if I gave them enough food and water. Floppy managed well enough when I did that in September of 1993. When I visited friends in Portland, Oregon for three days, he was fine when I came home.

My half sister, Jentien, generously drove me to the funeral. That was such a big help since I was several thousand dollars in debt.

While Diane's relatives and I socialized afterward, I suddenly realized the extent of my loss. The only family member who had the same set of recollections as I had was gone. Roy was too young and Linda hadn't been born until I was sent to Jericho.

I wrote about Diane in my When a Man Loves a Rabbit: Learning and Living with Bunnies and Deliverance from Jericho: Six Years in a Blind School memoirs. My upcoming How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity paperback also contains recollections of the times I visited her in North Battleford.