Easter

“If a man die, shall he live again?”
~Job 14:14

On Easter 2001, I began the day in a solitary walk. The day before had had troubling events. Difficult events. I needed to get out. To clear my mind. I walked alone that morning, to a nearby pond. I sat and watched ducks gliding. I listened to the sounds of the morning birds. I cried.

Later in the afternoon, I walked with a friend. She was seeking counsel from a religious leader about her difficulties in her marriage. She needed someone to watch her young son so she could get this counsel, undistracted. I walked back home, and realized that my body was acting as if it may be in the early stages of labor. I made arrangements to have our children cared for and left for the hospital.

I was indeed in labor, and stayed the night. And in the early morning of Easter Monday, Dominic Angelo was born.


Easter 2007, our children learned they would be having a new baby sister. The Easter bunny had put some little pink baby socks in the basket. And they asked who they could be for. Only a few months later, Bridget Lucille would be born.

She was premature and so little. Her tiny feet never grew big enough to wear the newborn socks.

Grief. The journey has seemed so solitary. Even though the anchor in my soul is securely fastened to the hope of our Savior. A testimony. I have felt so very alone. So alone!

As we listened last week to LDS General Conference, one message stood out. A message of Easter. The message of our Easters. Of a solitary walk...

"For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive"
~1 Cor. 15:21–22