132. Beautiful article from Meridian Magazine about "Easter Reflections"

Today I read a very inspirational article in the Meridian Magazine, which reminds us of the message of Easter -- That our Savior Jesus Christ suffered and died for all of us, and that we all will be resurrected with a perfected body, and according to our choices in life, to more than we could imagine of glory and joy.

I'll include the first part, and if you like it and have time, you can read the rest on the link I will leave.--  Have a wonderful Friday, -- some call it "Good Friday" I send my love to you.

Friday, April 18 2014

Easter Reflections

By Darla Isackson

The spiritual crescendo of Easter-time causes me to reflect on the lives of special people I’ve known that are now on the other side of the veil. I’ve been blessed with some extraordinary friends with extreme physical challenges. Several have already been called home (along with many of my relatives), which makes Easter’s promise of the Resurrection even more meaningful for me. In this article I’d like to focus on just one of those friends, Debbie Avila. Her recent death touched so many of us who had been blessed by her online friendship. 

At the age of seven Debbie was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy (an insidious disease characterized by progressive skeletal muscle weakness and the death of muscle cells and tissue). Her mother and two sisters also had the disease; only one sister is still alive. By the time she was seventeen, it was necessary to put Debbie on a respirator that was like a metronome of mortality pushing air through a hole in her throat into lungs that no longer had the capability to breathe on their own. She wasn’t expected to live past thirty but made it to fifty-three, a fact for which her friends feel unbounded gratitude. 

Over the years Debbie’s great heart led her to discover ways to keep serving others, primarily through the Internet. Debbie emailed me a message of love and gratitude for my Meridian articles a couple of years ago, and her ongoing messages led to a rich and wonderful friendship formed in cyberspace. She told me she only retained partial use of only one hand and that it took her a half-hour to type a message of any length. One of our mutual friends told me that Debbie could only move her right hand enough to use a mouse that was by her side in bed, but she used the on-screen keyboard, and typed by pointing to each letter individually and clicking on it. So I treasured any communication from her as a meaningful sacrifice. Debbie gave me permission to share whatever I chose from her writings, and today I’d like to share three things: the first two are replies (which I’ve edited and shortened) she wrote to probing questions, and the last is the eulogy she wrote that was read at her funeral. 

Debbie Reveals the Greatness of Her Spirit 

Question to Debbie: “Tell me, dear friend, your secret for focusing so well on others and on what you can still do, instead of on the misery you must surely experience most of the time with your body. You are a marvel! Tell me how you do it.” 

The rest of the article can be read here -- you may have to copy and paste --

http://www.ldsmag.com/article/1/14232