"I don't want to go to heaven yet"!

Yesterday my husband, Bill, drove a very old woman to her appointment at a hospital. She is blind, has cancer, and the appointment was for a chemotherapy treatment. It is amazing how some people cling to life. But if this is all they know, then there is reason to cling to it, I suppose.

My mother had bone cancer (it began as colon cancer) when she was 81 years old. She refused any treatment that would make her feel sick. She said, "Just please pray that I won't have pain. I am so afraid of pain." We did pray for that and at first she had pain and was given morphine for it. Then she began to become very confused and so we stopped the morphine. She spent the last two months of her life completely free of pain.

People of all ages liked my mother. A teacher in the local Christian school brought three 8-year-old children with her to visit Mom. The children gave her paintings they had done in school. When they were ready to leave Mom said, "The next time I see you we will be in heaven." One little boy burst into very loud crying. The teacher said, "What's the matter?" He said, "I don't want to go to heaven yet!" My mother told me that story and we both laughed so hard.