Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series.

“A storm is coming!”  Those words were spoken to my spirit during a morning service at our church on Jan. 6, 2008, as clearly as if someone had spoken out loud to me.

 Later that same day, during a nursing home service that my husband, Virgil, and I lead, another set of words was dropped into my mind.  They were lyrics from a song entitled “Where Could I Go,” an old gospel favorite.   “…yet when I face that chilling hand of death….”  

 These words slammed into my heart, causing tears to well up in my eyes and trickle down my face.  I had no clue as to what either of these “messages” implied.  

Life was good, for the most part, so I wasn’t too concerned.   But I have learned from years of journaling that God was speaking to my spirit.  Sadly, I would learn on Feb. 4, 2008 exactly what these strange expressions meant.  

Our beautiful, vibrant, youngest daughter, Lisa, at 39 years of age, was diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer….and the “storm” began in earnest.

But my story doesn’t start there.  The phone call that began this part of Lisa’s journey came on Valentine’s Day, around 2 a.m., Feb. 14, 2004.  Lisa, then 35, was on the other end, distraught and crying.  

She wailed, “Mama, Richard’s been in a bad accident.”   We rushed to her home, thankfully just down the lane from our house in rural South Georgia.  

As fate would have it, her husband, Richard, was already dead at the scene, but family members were either unsure or reluctant to actually give her that news at the time of the first phone call.  

Within two hours, his death was confirmed.  The love of her life, whom she married in 1996, had died in an accident while visiting his brother in North Carolina.  

We watched as our daughter struggled with the loss of her husband and father of their two children, now ages 5 and 6.  Her tears and fears of facing an uncertain future without financial support were ever-present.  

But her unwavering faith in God kept her centered.  She began praying and seeking direction for their future even as she grappled with the pain and grief, the loneliness and sleepless nights that accompany such a loss.  

Tragedy!  Death!  Terminal Illness!  How could one young woman endure so much in a few short years?   And yet, I watched real and sacrificial love play itself out in my daughter’s life as she grappled with these “bigger-than-life” issues in her own little family.

    Returning to school to complete an unfinished RN degree, Lisa struggled as do many single mothers with money and time issues.  But, she marched on, taking care of home, children, yards, cars, school and finances with the spirit of a true warrior, only asking for help when she absolutely felt she needed us.   Lisa was also faithful to her church, singing on the Praise Team and co-leading a college and career ministry which she helped create at her church.

    Lisa completed her nursing studies, receiving her Associate degree in Nursing in May 2008, and continued to work towards her Bachelor’s degree.  She passed her State Boards for RN certification in June 2008.  Unfortunately, the stress from the loss of her husband, her uncertain future, and then the grueling schedule she kept in trying to balance school, home, children and ministry, took a toll on her body.  Following a 21-month heroic battle that included two surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation and myriad drugs and therapies—all while dragging herself to classes when she could barely stand—our brave and beautiful daughter succumbed to the ravages of cancer on November 8, 2009, thirty-eight days after her forty-first birthday.