Dear Mrs. Bluth,
I would like to share with you a story of hope. I know that your column is often filled with sorrow, with heartache and unfortunate circumstance and with tragedy so great as to make my heart break for the letter-writer. Therefore, I would like to share with you a happening that has sustained me and my family for over twenty years and will continue to do so until the end of time. The only reason I chose this moment to share this amazing story is because it happened in our family and to my own husband. And now, because it has also happened to my daughter-in-law, whom I love with all my heart and wished to give strength and comfort in her own hour of need.
Twenty-five years ago, my husband and I decided to do something unheard of. We had just married off our youngest child and decided to take a long delayed trip. My husband, then fifty-three years of age, always wanted to travel, but we never had the time, opportunity or finances to afford said luxury. so we decided that we would take a cruise and see Europe on a leisurely, long overdue vacation. We had planned it down to the smallest detail and on a sunny day in May, we set off on a magnificent ship to spend three glorious months abroad touring Europe. It was the most wonderful time and we took many photos to attest to it.
A few weeks after we returned home, I noticed that my husband began to feel tired during the day, his appetite, always good, had fallen off and he had begun losing weight. At the beginning, this did not concern me too much, as he was portly and could stand to drop some pounds at his age. I wasn’t too concerned. But after a while, people began to notice and I began to be concerned. So he made an appointment to have a physical, which he long neglected to do before his retirement and our wonderful trip and I went with him to the doctor, who was his boyhood friend. Blood tests were taken, and every other test available so as not to overlook anything and then the prognosis after all that was that he had a cancerous tumor and needed immediate surgery. We were beside ourselves with worry when, after the surgery, the doctors informed us that they couldn’t get all of it, and that we should hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. In essence, when asked about his life expectancy, we were told he had about eight months to a year at best, and that we should use that time to the fullest.
We decided not to tell our children just then, to spare them the pain and grief of watching their father die, but save it for the very end. I must tell you that we were both Jewish by birth but non-practicing. However, all three of our children married Jewish girls and one couple is staunchly Orthodox, so we made sure to affiliate ourselves with a Jewish rabbi and cemetery for when the time came. My husband was always a generous man and gave to many charities but during those months he drew closer to our faith. We took the doctors’ advice and my husband drew up a ‘bucket list’ of all the things he wanted to do before the time ran out, and we did what we loved to do. We traveled both locally and abroad, we visited museums and went to theaters and plays, and we prayed together each day. One of our trips took us to Israel and there my husband learned how to put on tefillin for the second time since his bar mitzvah and put them on every morning thereafter. We also started to keep the Shabbat and kosher, which made our Orthodox son and daughter-in-law very happy and we were at peace. When the year was coming to an end, and after we had almost completed everything on his bucket list, we went for one of his last visits to the doctor. After examining him, taking blood and x-rays and a multitude of other tests at the hospital, there was a sudden influx of other doctors called in to give expert opinion on what seemed to excite our doctors. It appeared that the tumor was still as large as it had been at the beginning, but it had not grown since then!
My husband lived for twenty-five years since then, a life filled with happiness and gratitude and then and only then did we tell our children of the miracle no doctor could explain. He went to his eternal rest four years ago and passed peacefully in his sleep during his afternoon nap. So when my daughter-in-law called in tears to tell me she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, I told her the story with my husband. Miracles abound to those who believe that there is a Higher Authority than modern medical expertise and that absolute faith and trust in the Almighty can defy the worst medical prognosis. I told her to take strength and comfort from her faith and love of G-d and whatever His will may be, accept it with love and trust, as did my husband, and live each day to the fullest doing good works of kindness. And, perhaps, she too would be blessed with forever years of happiness, health and fulfillment. She felt so much better and hopeful after our talk.
Three years have gone by and she is in remission and cancer-free thank G-d, and it is at her suggestion that I am writing this letter. I hope that if there is anyone reading this that is going through a life-threatening event who can gain even a moment’s peace, comfort and hope from it, than I will consider it a blessing. There are miracles all around us and faith and hope are the springboard that allows us to see them.
Dear Friend,
There are no words with which to thank you for sharing this amazing life-story. In today’s troubled and convoluted world where pain is so intensely felt on a personal, as well as global level, your experience with a life and death issue brings home how great the power of faith, trust in Hashem and the power of positive thinking are. It may even defy the prognosis of the best doctors, the ideas of the keenest thinkers of our time and the vision of our wisest luminaries. Faith, hope and prayer are the kick-start to positive change. Hashem is the Creator, Hashem is the Conductor and Hashem is the Healer.
May you continue to spread your story of faith, hope, prayer and love of HaKodosh Boruch Hu and the power of positive thinking which comes from them. They are surely the catalyst that brings about miracles.
