God's Mercies after Suicide: Blessings Woven through a Mother's Heart~Devotion~Sorrow Brings Back a Kind Friend

My lap quilt on the right and my husband's on the left with Joshua's picture

     

“Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.”

—Psalm 51:8 KJV

I called my longtime friend, Susie, whom I hadn’t spoken to in years. I told her about Joshua, and she consoled me and encouraged me to lean upon the Lord.

In another phone conversation, Susie offered to make two lap quilts for us. “If you’ll pick out a few of Joshua’s clothes and send them, I’ll be happy to make them.”

That kind gesture moved me to tears.

Within a few days, I chose a couple of pairs of Joshua’s jeans and corduroys, and several shirts. The pants would be my quilt, because I always cut and hemmed his trousers for him. 

The shirts would be for Jim. The clothes I picked were the ones I could bear to see turned into squares within a quilt for my husband and me. His other clothes I kept hanging in his closet for it was too soon for me to part with them.

I boxed Joshua's clothes for the quilts and sent them to Susie.

Life became busy for Susie, and she asked her mother to help her complete the quilts.

I thought about the painstaking work Susie was doing. It made me teary-eyed, and I could hardly wait to have them in my hands. 

Truly, her work was a labor of love.

Father, friends like Susie are a true blessing. I pray I’m as faithful a friend to her. In Jesus’s name, I pray. Amen.