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While sorting through a storage box of my mother's things, a tattered paperback book landed before my feet. The title caught my eye "Making It Through the Toughest Days of Grief" by Meg Woodson. A small yellow post-it referenced a passage and I thought, "Oh, mom left another message" of which I have found several during my job clearing up her affairs. The highlighted passage under 'Mother's Day' read:
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"If the death of a child is the most unnatural of deaths, the death of a mother is the most elemental. No one will ever wait for me to call or visit the way my mother waited. No one will sacrifice for me the way my mother sacrificed. No one else has been with me from the beginning. My mother's love was impaired - she was human- but it was a mother's love." |
|  | This years Mother's Day has come and gone, the first without her as will every other of the "Toughest days of the Year". I weep more now than I did when she first left us, especially the mornings not receiving her wake up calls, and the evenings by not being able to relay my day's events.
|  | Subsequently, I received a letter from a long-time supporter asking honestly why she should continue contributing now that my mother has passed. That heartfelt inquiry gave me an opportunity to reflect exactly what we are doing. One thing is clear: the Barbara Johnson Foundation is not her ministry, nor is it mine. It's your ministry now!
| | You -- those who continually contribute, who sought her encouragement and advice, who cried and anguished over family losses, read her books, listened to her tapes, heard her speak and overcame the anguish and survived -- It's your ministry now!
| | Mom always said, "Don't waist your pain!" We are obligated to help others through life's difficult situations. Sharing the insights we gained, be that guiding light to those going through their own deep valley of sorrow and aloneness. Point the way to that "door of hope" God provides to make it and survive. She's gone now, but we are still here with that responsibility. I promised her before she died I would steward her legacy and of which you have supported all these years.
| | So why support the foundation? "Because my mom would want you to! The need is still here and continually growing. The sorrows and losses will still confront us and we must be ready to help those who presently flounder and so desperately seek our help."
Mom never asked for donations but relied on those who felt "led". During these difficult economic times, many foundations and charities are suffering, and we are no different. I have given a large portion of my own inheritance towards the foundation because I believe in you and what you have done and will continue to do. I look forward to seeing God's miracle unfold in the work we are committed to provide and I pray God's mercy in our future endeavors.
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Joyfully,
David Johnson
Executive Director
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