The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.
Psalm 90:10 ESV
It is hard to describe yesterday in words. It was both sad and wonderful for me in so many ways. If the words that follow do not make much sense it may be the result of only a few hours of sleep or me just trying to describe emotions that were all over the place all day long.
At 11:00 AM, I attended the memorial service for Sandra (Sandy) Lee Nolan (Boatman). I mentioned Sandy’s passing back in October. Mike, Sandy’s husband, was my boss for many years at ESC Region 12. There are two things that I think of when I think of Sandy. The first is the word BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal). Sandy brought this terminology to the ESC as a part of our continues improvement efforts. The other is how caring she was to everyone she worked with. Sandy truly was a special woman. I pray for Mike and Jason as they remain here on earth dealing with the troubles that still plag us all. The memorial service was one of the most uplifting I have ever attended. I could feel Angels in the room rejoicing that Sandy is with Jesus. I wanted to stay longer but had to leave to check on Melinda and get ready for our trip to Austin.
Melinda fell in love with the song “I Can Only Imagine” by Mercy Me when she first heard it in 2001. It was the ring tone on her phone for years only changed out ever so often to the Texas A&M Fight Song. She loves her Ags. After the movie, “I Can Only Imagine” came out, it rekindled that fire in Melinda for that song. I asked her if she would like to go see Mercy Me live in concert. Melinda has never really been one for going to concerts, but she replied with an excited, YES. In March 2018, I got online and ordered tickets to the October 2018 event at the ATT Center in San Antonio. Well, if you have been following this blog, you know the brain cancer was discovered in July 2018 and Melinda was going through some hard times in October 2018 and was unable to go.
Early this year, when Melinda was feeling a lot better I told her Mercy Me was coming to Austin and asked her if she would like to go. She looked at me with that beautiful smile and said “YES”. I went online and purchased tickets not thinking about wheelchair seating, because at the time she was moving around great, going to church, and seemed to be almost back to her normal self.
I returned home from the memorial service and Melinda was already getting ready. I asked her again are you sure you want to go. I could tell she was still a little tired from this past week’s radiation treatment. She smiled at me said, “I don’t want to miss it.” I worked on getting everything ready, including the wheelchair. Did I mention the tickets we had were not in a wheelchair area? I decided that it did not matter and if I had to I would carry Melinda to her seat and find a place to store the wheelchair. She wanted to go and I was going to take her.
We arrived at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park. This was our first time to ever attend an event at this location. After we made our way through security, we were asked for our tickets. The gentleman scanned them and then looked at me and then Melinda in her wheelchair. The look on his face said it all as he said these seats are up a lot of stairs. I explained Melinda’s situation and asked if there was at least an elevator that could get us up some of them. He suggested we go see guest services. His directions to guest services were not very clear and as we started to get lost God sent us an Angel. This elderly man wearing an H-E-B Events shirt and caring a clipboard walked by. I got his attention and explained our situation. He personally walked us to guest services, worked with someone in tickets to get our tickets changed to handicap, and then escorted us to our new seats. I wish I would have gotten his name because I can not say enough THANK YOUs to him and God.
It was an incredible experience. I thank God for allowing us to attend. Micah Tyler was the opening act. I thought he did an incredible job especially with a parody of “I Can Only Imagine” tieing it in with bits about Crowder and Mercy Me. I pray that God will continue to help him grow in his career. Crowder came on next. A few of his songs were a bit too loud for Melinda, but when he played “All My Hope” I could not help but cry as I watched Melinda praise God. You can see her in the video below.
The night concluded with Mercy Me. It was a magnificent experience God let me share with Melinda. Mercy Me put on an incredible performance including a performance of “I Can Only Imagine” during which I was able to kneel beside Melinda in her wheelchair, hug her as we sang and cried together. They also played their new song, “Almost Home“. It is a great reminder that this place is only temporary and we will one day be heading home to Jesus. I pray I will never forget this night.
Melinda has told me on more than one occasion she wants “I Can Only Imagine” played when she goes home to Jesus. Only God knows when that will be. In the meantime, we continue to fight cancer and do our best to share the Gospel of Jesus. Melinda will start the Temador chemo pill tonight. She had put it off in hopes she could go see Mercy Me. Thank God she was able to, but now the battle continues. We are both concerned as to what the Temadow will do to her body this time around, especially her stomach as the last rounds with this drug have been really hard on her.
Please pray for Melinda during this round of chemo. Pray God will protect her stomach so that she can eat. Pray that all of the radiation and chemo will do its job of killing the cancer. We pray that as we are almost home and the sorrows of this earth will be no more in Heaven that you will join us there. If you are not sure you will be in Heaven and you do not know Jesus we would love to tell you all about what he did for you, me, and the world.
