A FELLOW TRAVELER - MRS. BURROUGHS

This morning her journey to healing and going home came to a close with the PERFECT healing and home-going, HEAVEN. For her family, I know it was hard to make that decision to let her go. She had fought a long hard fight.

When we first arrived in January, Mr. Burroughs was the provider of God's first hug to me. He and his wife and been here since the middle of December. She had been in other facilities for over a year prior to that. They as well had traveled here from Tennessee to receive a VAD.

I received lots of hugs from Mr. Burroughs - every time I saw him. He became a very important part of our lives. He and Ken loved to visit over coffee and it was very comforting to know Ken had him around when I went back home for those 3 weeks. We often talked of the time we would all be back home and would have a big party to celebrate. He was a great encourager to us and the most devoted husband to his wife. He was faithfully in her room everyday between 9:00 and 10:00 in the morning and he stayed until 9:00 in the evening.

One night I was at the hospital until around 9:00. I walked the couple of doors down to her room to see if he wanted a walking partner when we left. There he stood by her bed, in the yellow gown and blue gloves, holding his Bible and praying with her. Although I had never witnessed that scene before, I AM SURE IT HAPPENED EVERY NIGHT.

Please keep him and his family in your prayers as they travel home to Tennessee. As he deals with the days ahead I know he will rejoice for her, but at the same time he is suffering a huge loss. My prayer is that GOD WILL EMBRACE HIM WITH HIS STRONG AND LOVING ARMS.