THOUGHTS: I've received so many comforting and inspiring notes from a myriad of people, it is impossible to acknowledge them all. I will be using them in the album I'll be creating. It isn't quite the album that I anticipated, but it's a story to be told, none-the-less. I'd also like to share a couple of them that struck a particular chord with me.

A friend was explaining her loss a few years ago and her response to the inevitable "Why". When anyone would mention the "why" to her, her response was, "I don't know. That's a management question and I'm in sales."

Then from another friend, "All I could think of was, "What was the use then of the surgery? It all seemed such a waste, but in a flash this paragraph read long ago in These Strange Ashes (by Elisabeth Elliot) comes to mind -- and there was comfort, then, in resting in his far greater purposes.

From These Strange Ashes "...Faith, prayer, and obedience are our requirements. We are not offered in exchange immunity and exemption from the world's woes. What we are offered has to do with another world altogether...

"A story is told of Jesus and his disciples walking one day along a stony road. Jesus asked each of them to choose a stone to carry for Him. John, it is said, chose a large one while Peter chose the smallest. Jesus led them then to the top of a mountain and commanded that the stones be made bread. Each disciple, by this time tired and hungry, was allowed to eat the bread he held in his hand, but of course Peter's was not sufficient to satisfy his hunger. John gave him some of his.

"Some time later Jesus again asked the disciples to pick up a stone to carry. This time Peter chose the largest of all. taking them to a river, Jesus told them to cast the stones into the water. They did so, but looked at one another in bewilderment.

"'For whom,' asked Jesus, 'did you carry the stone?'"

from These Strange Ashes by Elisabeth Elliot