Sad news. Tom Davenport, in whose honor I am riding for Team in Training, passed away on Sunday from leukemia. So now, I am going to be riding in his memory instead. Please pray for Amy, his daughter, and his wife, Mary, and his other family and friends. I’ve been thinking a lot about when my Mum died–the ninth anniversary just passed, and Tom had the same kind of cancer she had. This is something I emailed to Angie, my friend and Amy’s.
"When my mom was dying, she was so drugged on morphine that we didn’t get to talk to her very much. She had been on the respirator for a week in the ICU, so there was a week and a half before she died that we couldn’t communicate with her, and I really wish we could have done for her what you guys did for Tom. I prayed for Tom, Amy, her mom–everyone touched by this, yesterday on my bike ride. It seemed silly to be riding at all, knowing that people are dying, and what good does a bike ride do? Then I realized that it puts me out by myself for hours at a time with nothing to distract me from prayer, so yesterday, I prayed like crazy. Right after my mom died, I felt this huge cushion of her love surrounding me for weeks–like it was her last gift to me, and it shielded me in a way from all of the crazy-grief that I was afraid of. Because when we knew she was going to die, I was terrified of the grief itself, I was afraid that it would consume me, that I would never again be whole and myself. I wanted to be years away from the experience. I kept saying, "I want it to be two years from now." I needed that sense of distance because I didn’t want to be there in all that pain. So I’m praying for Amy that she gets the cushion of her father’s love, too. And that these last days together are the most joyful, wonderful, meaningful days they’ve ever had."
I just wanted to share what has been on my mind lately. Thanks for all of your kind comments about my 100 mile ride on Saturday!
