As many of you may know, Erma, the woman that I had be living and working with over the past year and a quarter, passed away. Here’s the email I sent out from her office account the morning of her passing.
“It is with great sadness, but inexplicable peace, that I report to all of you that this Easter morning around 8AM, Erma went to be with the Lord. She was walking up to the early morning Easter Service for the Mission Church and other surrounding churches at the top of a hill in Valle Tranquilo. On the way up, she had a heart attack and was not able to be resuscitated by the doctor, Pastor Avitia. As we kept saying, what better way and time for her to go than serving the Lord on the day we celebrate His resurrection and life. Please keep her family and friends and all the people that she has touched down here with her life in your prayers. What a great example she has been to all of us, serving the Lord to her dying day. I can hardly believe it’s true.”
Even though I had moved out from the foundation, I still saw Erma at least once a week either at the Mission Church or at our friend Hector’s church. For Easter, Erma had offered to let Hector’s church use her bus to transport the congregation to Valle Tranquilo for the sunrise service. I picked up my friend Carmen and met them down at the church. As I loaded the bus, I saw Erma and greeted her with a smile and a handshake (she was sitting or else we would have hugged). She seemed very happy that morning. I remember that morning before I got there, I had kept praying that things would not be awkward between us. God answered my prayer. Anyways, once we arrived at Valle Tranquilo, I hurried up the mountain with some of the kids. About 15 minutes later, I saw some unusual commotion with Victor, Hector, Pastor Avitia, and some other people. I wondered what was going on, but was not too concerned. Then Victor came over to me and in his broken English said, “Erma is dying.” The way he said it, I thought I had misunderstood him. I said, “What?” “Erma is dying,” he answered. But how could that be? I had JUST seen her 15 minutes earlier and she was completely fine! “Wait, what??” I tried to clarify. “Erma is dying. We need to go.” When I saw the looks on some of the faces around me, I realized it was true. The next thing I know one of the women came over to me and hugged me and was saying, “Se murio, se murio,” “She died, she died.” I was unsure if she was dying or had already died, so I went over to where I saw some people (including Victor) loading into Hector’s van to drive down the hill. They had confirmed that she had died. I asked if there was anything I could do to help and they asked if I wanted to come with them. So I jumped in the van as well. As we headed down the hill and off the the mortuary where they had already driven Erma’s body, Victor said one thing I could do to help would be to go back to Erma’s house and start making calls to tell her family and then send out an email to all her contacts to inform them of what happened. WOW. Me?? Call her children and let them know that their mother has died?? It was really weird though, I kept feeling like I should be nervous, I should be trying to get out of that hefty responsibility, I should be trying to run away from this, but no. God gave me an inexplicable peace and strength to suck it up and do it.
We arrived at the mortuary where my friend, Carmen, was sitting next to Erma’s body in the car in which she was driven to the mortuary. I went over to comfort Carmen and hold her hand as she held Erma’s hand. This part was a little scary for me. I had never seen a dead person before, let alone someone I knew, but I knew I had to be there for Carmen. We just stayed there for about a half an hour crying, holding hands, and talking about how this was the perfect day and perfect way for her to go. A little while later, it was decided that there was nothing else Carmen and I could do there to help, so we headed back to Erma’s to start making calls. I was having a difficult time getting a hold of anyone since it was Easter Sunday morning. I finally got ahold of Michael, Erma’s grandson whom I’ve met, and told him the news. He couldn’t believe it and even thought I was joking. It was really sad, but I’m glad it was Michael, someone I knew, that I got to tell. From there, he said that he would get ahold of his mom, Judy, and they would tell the rest of the family. After all the family had been informed, I sent out the above message to the rest of Erma’s email contacts. It was a long day, but Carmen stayed by my side all day and God gave me the strength and peace to get through it and to do what I need to and could do to help.
The following day, my wonderful friend, Hannah, volunteered to drive up to the states with me to go pick up Judy, Paul, Michael, and his fiancé, Renee. On the way up, we found ou
The following day was the other funeral service which was followed by the ca
r procession to the burial site and then the burial. The services were all so nice. We all knew that Erma was with the Lord and that there was no better way or day for her to go. She was with Jesus, rejoicing in heaven, how could we be sad about that? We were just sad for ourselves, that we don’t get to have her with us anymore. Many members from Hector’s church in Cardenas were bussed up to all the services. This was very special for me. Some of my favorite little kids were there to hug me and comfort me in this difficult time. I would not have traded that for the world. God strengthened me through them and through the hugs and comfort of my sweet friend, Melissa. It was like they would pour into me and fill me up and that gave me the strength to pour into others and fill them up. It was such a beautiful time for me. I feel like I’ve grown up so much this past week.
She was a wonderful woman who had done wonderful things for the Lord. She touched a lot of lives. This has been very evident this past week.
Praise the Lord! May this glorify His name.
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