Chapter 41 autumn remnant

problem occurs. Jira, the Archmage's daughter, called my cell phone.She won't call me on my cell phone unless there is a real problem.She said the archmage was showing degenerative symptoms, possibly from a stroke or heart attack.He lost his balance and fell to the right.He couldn't remember his name, and he spoke incoherently. He went to the hospital and has been in the hospital for several days.They are discussing the options. Will he?I asked. We really don't know.she said. I hung up and called the airport. I arrived at his house on Sunday morning, and Sarah received me.She pointed to the Archmage, who was out of the hospital and was sitting on a recliner in the back of the living room.

Well, let me let you know first, she lowered her voice and said: He is not very I nod. Al?She reported: You have guests. She spoke very loudly and very slowly.This made me realize that things have changed.I walked up to the Archmage, who turned his head, raised his chin a little, made a smile, and raised one hand a little, but not above his chest. ah.he yelled. He was wrapped in a blanket and a flannel shirt, and what looked like a whistle hung around his neck. I leaned down and touched his face lightly with my cheek. Uh huh Mickey.he whispered. are you OK?That's a really stupid question.

It's better than when he opened his mouth and stopped suddenly. Can't compare? He made a sour face. Can't compare to your heyday?I said.Really forced humor. He tries to smile. No.He said: I mean this this? where do you see I swallowed hard.I felt tears welling up. The archmage sat on a chair. But the man I knew was gone. How do you react when someone you love leaves too soon?You didn't have time to prepare, and that soul left suddenly? Ironically, the person best equipped to answer this question is sitting right in front of me. The greatest loss that a person may face in his life has happened to him.

That was in 1953, and he had only been in the church for a few years.His and Sarah's family is still growing: son Sharon is five years old and twin daughters Ola and Lina are four.Euler means light.Lina means joy. Overnight, the joy is gone. Little Lina, a lively child with brown curly hair, had trouble breathing.She was lying on the bed, wheezing and wheezing constantly.Sarah heard it in her own bedroom, went to check it out, and sprinted back to the room.Al, she said hastily: We've got to take her to the hospital. They drove into the dark night, their young daughter struggling desperately.Her windpipe swelled and tightened in her chest.Her lips are blue.This has never happened before.The archmage slammed on the gas pedal.

They stormed Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden, New Jersey.The doctor hurriedly sent the child to a ward, and then had to wait.They stand alone.What can they do?Who can do what? Oberth and Sarah were in the deserted corridor, praying that their child would survive. Hours later, she died. It was a severe asthma attack, Lina's first and last.If it were today, she would probably be saved alive.As long as the doctor prescribes an inhaler for her, it's probably not a big deal. But yesterday is not today.That night, the archmage could do nothing but hear the most horrific words he could have imagined from a doctor he had never met. We can't save her.How can this happen?Earlier that day, she had been normal, a playful child with a whole lot of life ahead of her.We can't save her?Where is the logic of life?Where is the order in life?

The next few days were a blur.There was a funeral, a small coffin.At the grave the Archmage said the Death Prayer; a prayer he had said for so many others, in which there was not a single word about death, but which was to be repeated every year on the anniversary of death. ∮ May the great name of God be glorified and hallowed throughout the world he has made A small shovelful of soil was sprinkled over the grave. Lina was buried. The archmage was thirty-six years old. I curse God.Talking about it, he confessed to me: I asked God over and over again: Why her?What did this little girl do?She is only four years old.She didn't hurt a single soul.

Did you get an answer? I still don't get an answer. Does this make you angry? For a while, I was very angry. Are you guilty of cursing God, especially in your capacity? Won't.He said: Because even when I curse, I admit that there is a power greater than myself. He paused. That's how I started to heal. That night the Archmage returned to the pulpit, and the sanctuary was full.Some came to pay his respects, others, no doubt out of curiosity.But in private, most people are thinking the same thing: Now that this is happening to you, what do you say? The archmage knew this, so he came back to see things so quickly.Normally, he had thirty days of bereavement leave, but he showed up on the first Friday after the incident.

He stood on the pulpit, and everyone fell silent.He speaks in the only way he knows. He speaks from the heart.Yes, he admits, he cries out for an answer.As a man who worked for God, he was not at all immune to the tears and pain of not being able to hold his little daughter in his arms again. But, he pointed out, it was the mourning ceremonies that he had to perform even when he cursed, the prayers, the tearing of his clothes, his shaving, and covering up the mirror that helped him hold onto himself and not forget who he was. What I used to say to others, I must now say to myself.In doing so, he admits, he faces the harshest test of his faith: drinking his own elixir, healing his own broken heart.

He told his listeners how the words of the Death Prayer made him think: I am a part of this place; someday my children will say for me the same prayer I am saying for my daughter. Faith comforted him, and though faith could not save little Lina from dying, it made her death easier; it reminded him that we are all fragile parts of a mighty force.He said his family was lucky to have this child in the world, albeit only for a few years.One day he will see her again.He believed it, and it brought him comfort. After he finished speaking, almost everyone was crying. Years later, he told me: Whenever I go to the homes of bereaved people, especially those who have lost young members, and comfort them, I try to recall what comforted me in the first place.Sometimes we sit quietly, just sit, at most hold hands.Let them talk, let them cry.After a while, I could see they were much better off.

When I go out, I do this He touched his tongue with a finger and pointed to the sky. One point for you, Lina.he smiled. Now, in the back of his house, I hold the Archmage's hand as he used to hold other people's hands.I try to smile.He blinks behind his glasses. Well, I said, I'll be back to see you soon. He nodded slightly. hello yes he whispered. There is nothing more that can be done.He could no longer speak complete sentences.Every effort to have a conversation with him was futile and I felt it only frustrated him more.He seemed to realize what was going on, and I worried that the expression on my face would reveal that I was feeling a heart-pounding sense of loss.How is this fair?This wise and eloquent old man, who a few weeks ago was talking theology, is now deprived of his most precious faculties; he can no longer teach, can no longer weave good words with his good heart.

He can't sing anymore either. He could only pinch my fingers, then open and close his mouth. On the plane home, I wrote a few sentences.I was worried about that tribute, and finally the deadline came. ◇◇◇ A Sermon by the Grand Master If you ask me, you should also ask me why such a beautiful and lovely child, who had so much to give, died unexpectedly.I can't give you a rational answer because I don't know. But I found a commentary in the Bible that traditionally believed that the first ancestor Adam was the longest-lived person, and he lived for a thousand years.Not so.A wise man in search of answers tells us the following story: Adam asked God to let him see the future.Then the Lord said: Come with me.He took Adam through room after room of heaven where souls to be born in the future waited for their time.Every soul is a flame.Adam saw that some flames were bright and pure, while others were dull and dull. Then he saw a flame of extraordinary beauty, clear, blazing, golden-orange with healing powers.Adam said: Oh Lord, that must be a great man.When will it be born? God replied: Sorry, Adam, that soul is beautiful, but it cannot be born.It is doomed to sin, to defile itself.I decided not to let it ruin itself, to spare it this shame. Adam pleads: But Lord, human beings need someone to teach them, to lead them.Please, don't deprive my grandchildren of opportunities. The Lord replied warmly: the decision has been made.I have no lifetime to assign to it. Then Adam took courage and said: Lord, what if I would give a portion of my life to that soul? God answered Adam: If you wish, I will. We have heard that Adam was not a thousand years old when he died, but nine hundred and thirty years old.After many generations, a child was born in Bethlehem.He became the ruler of Israel, and he was good at singing sweet songs.He led the people, inspired them, and then he died.The Bible says at the end: Behold, King David lived to be seventy years old, and was buried. Friends, sometimes people ask us why some people die so young, I can only rely on our conventional wisdom to answer.Indeed, David's lifespan was not long in terms of the era in which he lived.But while he was alive, he taught and inspired people, leaving us with a great spiritual legacy, including the Bible, the Psalms.The twenty-third of those psalms, often rang at funerals: ∮ The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures: Lead me beside still waters. he revives my soul Wouldn't it be better to know my daughter Lina for four years than not to know her at all?