Loss

Yesterday, around lunchtime, the 2nd grade teacher at our school passed away. She was in Thailand, getting surgery for a medical condition that she had when she moved here. She had had the surgery and was doing ok, but then, just as her husband was calling a taxi for himself to come back to China, she convulsed and seemed to have a heart attack. They resuscitated her a couple of times, but then found a blood clot in her lung, and couldn't do anything. Her husband teaches 6th grade at our school. They have 3 boys here with them in China and 3 grown up kids back in the US. They just moved here when I did, about a month and a half ago.

Of course, it's always a possibility when surgery happens, but I don't think anyone really thought it would happen. She was a peaceful, trusting person, who always encouraged me whenever I saw her. I will miss her, because she was one of my first friends when I moved here. But mostly I feel pain for her family, especially her kids. Her youngest is in 6th grade, and was very close to his mom. 

Everyone here feels their pain and thinks that they don't know what they would do if this was them. Everyone is asking "why" and "how could this happen" and feeling helpless to really help the family. Really all anyone can really do is ask him to make all of our faith stronger and give the family grace to trust even when their world is coming apart. In the end, I know we'll be all ok, because really he's in control and can create amazing good out of horrible situations. But for now, I think that none of us can really believe that this has happened. I can't help but hope that he shows us why someday.