My Friend Linda Part 2

Linda passed away 5 years ago. It is still hard to believe she is gone. I still get mad at her. Why did she do that?

I told you how Linda lived, now let me tell you how she died. 

When Connie got cancer, Linda was the one who kept her going, she and Pastor Bill. I would go with Connie to the Dr. and often Linda met us there. Connie would be nervous and fearful, (me too) but as soon as Linda walked through the door she calmed down instantly. Linda did that for people. When Linda got cancer, Connie was able to be there for her.

Linda and I didn't always get along. Linda could be very bossy and controlling and I rebelled. We knocked heads a lot, but I still loved her.

When we learned she might have cancer,  I prayed and prayed. Then good news. The surgeon didin't feel it was cancer, just a mass, what a relief. Connie was going through the last part of chemo when Linda went in for surgery. She couldn't be there, but serveral of us were, Judy Gunn, who was visiting from Panama, our friend Sandy Young and me. When the Dr. came to talk to us, it wasn't what we wanted to hear. It was cancer and it was bad. We were allowed to go see her and she kept asking what the Dr. had said. We didn't want to tell her everything right then, but Linda liked to face things head on. I did not.

Linda was amazing. She was in such great shape, she recoved quickly form surgery and one day she came to see Connie and I. When I got home from work I could tell Connie had been crying. Linda told me she had something to tell me. The cancer was a nasty type, very agressive, she had maybe 6 mos. (The Dr. later gave her a year) I was stuned. We all had a good cry, then she told us she wasn't going to have any treatments to prolong her life, she just wanted to go to heaven. I was so MAD at her! Why couldn't she at least try? But she truly felt the Lord was telling her it was her time to come home. I didn't like His message at all.

Linda didn't live a year, she didn't live 6 mos. 5 short months later she was gone. Within 2 mos she was bed ridden. Every now and then she would rally and get out of bed. She was still funny, still caring and she showed us how to die.

Sometimes she seemed too eager to die. Excited about going to heaven. I would get so mad. Didn't she know she was leaving us? She was leaving us all (The Gang) behind. Wasn't she going to miss us? Didn't she know how much we would miss her? One day she came to Connie and burst into tears. "I just realized how much I'm going to miss you guys."

Some of "The Gang" with Linda

Towards the end she moved in with a couple, Phil and Sandy Young. They were missionaries with Wyclife too and were the reason Linda had joined the organization. They were wonderful people, I don't know what we would have done without them. They gave her such loving care. Sandy was a nurse and had worked at a Hospice. Linda called Phil her "Man Servent". She ordered him around quite a bit. =} 

We went to see her often but she could only handle short visits so a group of us would hang out in the livingroom talking. Linda would usually hear us and call someone back to give her opinion on whatever we were talking about. She was still Linda after all.

One day Linda told The Gang she didn't want us coming to see her anymore. She didn't want us to see her that way. One day we all met at the Youngs and she called us back one at a time (or as couples)  to say good bye. It was horrible and wonderful. How often do you get to tell the dying you love them one last time. I asked forgivness for being a brat so often, for the fighting. I was ashamed now. All the wasted time, all the petty pickering. Stupid, stupid! She forgave me gladly and said she loved me. I said I loved her too and I really did. Even with all the clashes in recent years, I would miss her so much. She was a rock for all of us. After we said our goodbyes, we all had a good cry, held hands and prayed.

The Lord was so good in that Connie finished chemo while Linda was in the hospital and was going through radiation when Linda got really bad. The Lord gave Connie energy and strength during those last days and she was able to visit Linda everyday, until she said no more.

We got a phone call early on a Sunday morning in Febuary. Linda was gone. The Gang got together and though we all belonged to different churches, we all went together that morning. Everyone came to our church, the one Linda and Connie and I attended. Our pastor had been with Linda to the end, had been a great comfort to her and us. He patterned his sermon around Linda and introduced The Gang and let us each say something if we wanted too.

Later we held a large memorial service for her at Wycliffe, attended by about 300 of her bestfriends.


We still talk about Linda a lot. All the funny things she said and did. We often quote her when someone cuts us off in traffic. She would always say, "Now that poor man probably has diarreha and needs to get to a bathroom." Or when we don't want to do something we know we should, we can hear her saying, "Now what would the Lord what you to do? You know you need to do this."

Linda was still living when I was writing my first book. I made her "Linda Lizard" a helpful, very talkitive little lizard and Super Pigs good friend. She was gone before the books were published. She would have been so happy to see the stories in print.

Page from my book with Linda Lizard. (she's the one waving of course)

Linda made Connie the executor of her will. She had a good life insurance policy and she was a saver. Connie had the job of distributing the money to all the people Linda left it too. She said it was one of the best jobs she's ever had. Many of the people worked in our office so she got to deliver the checks in person. People were always shocked and overwhelmed. Connie always took a box of kleenex with her. Linda requested that with her tax return money, The Gang and our pastor and his wife, go out for a nice dinner. So in May The Gang got together and went to Buca Di Beppo a fun Italian resturant for a wonderful meal and to reminisce.

Linda's favorite tree was the Crepe Myrtle, a beautiful flowering tree. The Wycliffe office bought 3 trees and planted them beside "the lake" behind the office, in Linda's memory.

We all learned something from Linda. She had very little in the way of material things, but was wealthy in friendships and in her love for the Lord. I don't doubt she is living in a very beautiful masion right now, with a very heavy crown on her head. I'm sure also, that she is bossing all the disciples, apostles and angels around, and I have a feeling she has been put in charge of the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.