Friday, January 14, 2011

My Mother Has Gone Home

Mother's Day 1999

Betty Ruth Linsley died at 3:12 am Pacific time today.  Her dying was prolonged and at several times in the past 6 months we thought she would rally, but her 3 daughters know that this life is terminal. She would have been 89 in February.

For most of her life, my mother served Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In a very humble way, she led many to faith in HIM and I pray that her reward will be great in heaven. 

Dying is sometimes a slow and difficult process. Why some die instantly and others so slowly is a mystery.

In August, I was able to say goodbye to her. I prayed for her with my hand resting on her head and thought of how that head had breached her mother's womb at birth by God's grace and how she would breach the gateway to God's presence by that same grace.

As my older sister prayed for our mother she had this thought: "From life’s first cry to final breath, Jesus commands Mom's destiny."

Thanks to all who have prayed for her and our family: Tina, Ron, Sean, Margaret, Bishop David Chislett, David Ould, Brent, Michael, Lvka and Georgia.

Please remember her family as we will miss her very much.

Thank you.

Alice



For family and friends who wish to make a memorial gift, please consider a donation in her memory to one of these organizations:

The Christian Legal Society

USO
at

12 comments:

  1. RonJanuary 14, 2011 at 7:15 AM

    Memory Eternal! Lord have mercy!

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 14, 2011 at 8:12 AM

    Ms. Linsley, God bless you in your grief and God bless your mother in eternity. Brent

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2011 at 6:21 PM

    God Bless My Grandmother, Mother and Aunts...

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  4. bobJanuary 17, 2011 at 12:56 PM

    May God grant you every consolation. That's a terribly hard thing for you, and memory eternal for your dear mother.

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  5. Sandra SextonJanuary 17, 2011 at 4:58 PM

    I'm so sorry to hear of your Mother's passing. May God give you strength to get through this. God Bless!

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  6. TinaJanuary 17, 2011 at 5:26 PM

    Alice, it is never easy to give up one we love. May God bless her and your memory of her. May He give you and yours continued comfort in the years to come as your mother comes to mind.

    Tina

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  7. Sandra McCollJanuary 17, 2011 at 10:21 PM

    Alice, my belated condolences and prayers.

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  8. David ChislettJanuary 20, 2011 at 11:37 AM

    Alice, may the Lord's love and peace be experienced very deeply by you and the rest of your mother's family and friends.

    David Chislett

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  9. Alice C. LinsleyJanuary 22, 2011 at 11:46 AM

    I thank all of you for your condolences.

    My mother died peacefully and without pain. She had some lucid moments in the last few days in which she recognized loved ones, called them by name, and told them that she loved them.

    God is good.

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  10. Milton StanleyAugust 8, 2011 at 2:32 PM

    I only began reading your blog this week so wasn't able to comment earlier. I lost my dad about a year ago; he was also just short of his 89th birthday.

    I hope you are still dealing well with grief. No matter how much we prepare, it seems, or how much we realize that sometimes death is a blessing to the faithful, losing a parent is a visceral trauma. The pain can often be worse, too, when our final parent dies. Although the world goes on more or less as it always has, and we along with it, the sun and moon shine a little less brightly in the sky, and will for some time.

    I have already mentioned you to the Father, and will continue to do so from time to time as you come to mind. The peace of the Lord be always with you.

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  11. Milton StanleyAugust 8, 2011 at 4:47 PM

    By the way, the more I read your blog, the more I see we have in common. I left the Episcopal church for more or less the same reasons you did, but in 1988. My parents stayed at our local parish, where they were very happy with the rector, Stephen Freeman. I kept up with Stephen and later visited his Orthodox congregation for prayer the afternoon of 9/11/01. Although he had already left the PECUSA by the time my mother was dying in the late '90s, Stephen visited her regularly in the hospital and was a great comfort to her.

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  12. Alice C. LinsleyAugust 8, 2011 at 5:03 PM

    Milton, thanks for remembering me before the Father who is the Giver of every good gift.

    Father Freeman is a faithful priest. Your parents were blessed to have received his ministry.

    We have wisely left TEC, a spiritually dangerous "church" and I pray that God will protect the innocent who may remain there out of loyalty to their local parishes or becasue they can't get to a different church. I plan to have lunch this next week with just such a person, an elderly woman, from my former TEC parish.

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