~going is what I plan to do~

I promised my sister Sherry a whole lot of things in the days right before she died.  From her hospital bed she asked me to watch over her grandkids and to check in on her two daughters to be sure they were doing ok.  I vowed that Mike and I would always stay in contact with Wes and provide help to him anytime that we could.  My message to her was straight forward and quite simple.

"Don't worry.  Everything and everyone will be ok."
A couple of days before she died, Sherry finally entered that deep sleep that prepares us all for our journey to Heaven.  She finally quit worrying and on June 16th, she slipped away.

Last year just about this time, Sherry and I had decided we would travel to Kansas together and go on the ALS walk in Wichita, Kansas.  Each year folks who have lost family members to that awful and always fatal illness that most of us know as "Lou Gehrig's" disease, gather at the Waterfront in Wichita.  Hundreds of walkers make the one mile journey around the beautiful waterway and remember in celebration the lives of those who have gone on or are still fighting the battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.  Signs that display the pictures of family members who have been affected by the disease, dot the area around the path.  Our brother, Mike Scott, is one of those people whose picture is affixed to a sign.

He died of ALS in November of 2007.

We headed for home in Kansas on a Friday afternoon last year, with Wes at the wheel for the journey to go back through OKC and straight north into Wichita.  I noticed that Sherry was very tired but she insisted she would be fine and had made plans to try out a brand new scooter that had just been purchased for her to get around with more ease.  By the time we made it to Wichita and settled into our hotel room for the night, her weariness had gotten much worse.  In the middle of the night, after having fallen twice in the hotel room, I had a feeling the walk would be a "no go" for the two of us.

An ambulance ride in the early morning hours whisked her away to Wesley Medical Center only a few blocks away from where we were staying.  Her COPD and additional health issues were starting to take their toll.  A nearly 17 day stint in the ICU before being dismissed to go home to Altus, was the beginning of her trip down the very slippery slope.  She was so disappointed that she could not walk for Mike and upset with herself that I made the choice to stay with her there in the ICU rather than join the others.  I made her a promise before I came back to Texas without her for the first time ever in my life, that in 2017 we would try again and this time everything would be ok.

She didn't make it that long.

So in 8 days more, I once again will keep a promise for her as I travel the very same route we did together back in 2016 in order to walk in the memory of our brother Mike.  It won't be quite the same as the original plan was but if Sherry can be there in spirit, I know she will be.  Going on the walk alone is just one more thing I have to get used to without her being here.  It's sad to think of but even sadder yet would be the idea that I would choose not to go at all.

Going is what Sherry would want.
Going is what I plan to do. 

The end of the walk during our first one together.  It was an honor to do so for a brother who meant the world to me.

April of 2010-Two silly girls who thought they were done with being teachers made plans to enter retirement together.  That didn't last for either of us.  Thank you God!

The day that we walked for our brother~