Joy & Sorrow

 And so March 27 has come again this year with the familiar tug at my heart strings.   I find myself  days later deep in thought about living in the present with joy and sorrow, such extreme emotions.  Happy-sad day, has captured me once again.  It was joy that arrived in our home on March 27, 1952 with the birth of my brother John Robert Gerry Jr.  He had beautiful blue eyes and a cubby round little face that no one could resist. We called him Bobby.  Bobby and I, with our white blond hair and big blue eyes,  dressed in matching outfits, big sister and little brother.  And so for 25 years our family celebrated the birth of our Bobby on March 27th.  That date--joy, love, celebration.  So how could it be that our day of celebration, the date of my brother's birth, became a day of sorrow--the very day our beloved father died.  It was all so unexpected.  Dad---a heart attack?  Death had arrived before we did---- our father was gone.  "Absent in the body, present with the Lord," John Robert Gerry Sr.  Sorrow, pain, depth of grief.  It wasn't meant to be this way.  I adored my father.  I needed him.   We all needed him. He was the grandfather to my baby daughter Sarah. Depth of loss not to be expressed in words.   I miss my father everyday.  But then the Joy. My brother Bobby for 61 years. Joy & Sorrow, Sorrow & Joy, we will forever live together with the ever-present knowledge that all things past, present and yet to come are working together for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.  May it be so----