ALISHA NELSON: More To The Story

When my father died from leukemia over a decade ago at the age of 62, my two sisters and I were devastated. He was everything to us. It was a terrible, painful loss. We weren’t ready to let him go.

At the time my father died, my youngest sister and I had not spoken to each other for years. We had had a falling out and had not seen each other since. I hated the way things were but could not seem to repair the relationship, no matter what I tried. It was a real heartache for me.

When we came together before my father’s funeral, we were forced to speak to each other because of the situation. Communication slowly opened up. It was a beginning. I was hopeful.

By the time of the funeral, we were talking and acting like sisters again. We were both so happy. It was a huge comfort to each of us in our time of grieving to have reconnected, to get each other back at that awful time. It helped ease some of the intense pain of our loss. Strong emotions all over the place, trying desperately to control them.

After the funeral, my sister and I went to the ladies room together. (My sister happens to be one of the funniest people I have ever known. She can make me laugh like NO ONE else.) While we were in the bathroom, she did something funny and we both started laughing, hysterically.

Apparently we both needed that release of emotion since we were so full of happy and sad. We stumbled out of the bathroom just cracking up, both so thankful that we had each other again, especially now

We ran right into a woman waiting to go in. She immediately scowled at the both of us, daughters of the man who had just died, messing around in the bathroom, laughing, apparently not at all heartbroken over the loss of this fine man.

I was struck by the look on her face and realized immediately how this appeared. I wanted to explain it to her but decided against it. She had judged us wrongly. If she knew the whole story she would have understood what was happening and how VERY heartbroken we were over the loss of our father.

Please remember, we almost never have the whole story and are not in a position to judge others, not even ourselves really. Only God can judge a human being because only He knows everything. We can’t lean on our own understanding or always rely on what we see.

We are simply to love others, no matter what, just like He loved us.

Alisha Nelson is a city girl learning to live off grid on a mountain in Montana with her husband Butch. You can follow her at the Roanoke Star as well as her blogs:

The Funny Side of the Mountain

Wind In Our Wings

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