Going Home-Me and Mom

I guess that this is a story of 2 people going home, me to West Virginia and Mom to her Heavenly Home with the Lord. First of all I want to give all the Honor and Glory to the Lord Jesus Christ who is my source for all things, without whom I could never have accomplished this. In this picture is Mom and my "Little Sister, Sandy" who was the primary care-giver for Mom, not only for the last few months of her life but for the last several years. This picture was taken when I first got to Sandy's house around Feb. 06, 2007

I think I first felt the leading of the Lord to go help Sandy with Mom around Feb 05,2007. I had talked to my sister Bonnie in North Carolina and she said that Sandy was upset because Mom's sugar level had gone down and they were trying to get it back up. I called Sandy and she was very upset and also she said that the hospice nurse had scolded her because Sandy was not giving the morphine every 3 hours as they had directed. I told Sandy that I was going to come up and she said that she just knew I was going to. At that time the only support that Sandy was getting was from her husband Jim but he had to go to work every day. I went and told Gloria that I was going to go up and I asked her to go to Carrabelle,FL to get some cash and she said "I already did", Gloria is like that she always knows before me what I will do, God gives her that gift. I went ahead and packed quick, at this time it was about 10:45am and I also called Floyd and told him that I was going and he said he understood and wished me well. I finally left around 12:00 noon on Monday Feb 5, 07. Oh, I forgot to mention that I had no heater in the car and here I was going to West Virginia in Feb and they were calling for snow on Wednesday, but God told me to go and I obeyed. I did manage to get me a small heater that plugged into the cigarette lighter, it helped lots.

I managed to drive about 9 hours before I stopped in Anderson,SC at a small motel, it was there that I discovered that I had left my jacket in Florida of all things, I called Gloria and told her and I decided that I would go to Walmart the next morning and pick up a coat, the Lord provided me with a nice heavy orange jacket, that was on sale for $15.00, you can see in the photo it later came in "very handy" in WV, and even before in Anderson,SC it was already cold. God always knows what we need.

I started out from Anderson,SC around 8:00am I figured that I could be in Parkersburg around 3:00-4:00 pm but I did not figure on the snow moving in. About 3:00pm I stopped at the West Virginia turnpike rest area around Beckley,WV and the snow was coming down pretty hard by then, I was sure appreciating that little heater and also the blanket that Gloria had put in with me and also the gloves that I had bought at Dollar General in SC. At around dark-thirty (6:00pm) I was just on the other side of Charleston,WV an I was wondering if I was going to make it into Parkersburg, about 70 miles north. Here is a shot from the car that night! I had not driven in snow like this since I do not know when! I was praying hard for God to supernatually keep that road clean and I am sure he did. I kept behind the big trucks, in clear lanes all the way in, when I got to Parkersburg the roads were pretty well covered, and iced over. Making it over the belpre bridge I got to Sandy's and jim's around 7:30-8:00pm. This concludes the 1st part going home, the next part will be Home with Mom and Sandy.