We’d known for months that our elder son and his wife, who was pregnant with our first grandchild, were moving to Australia. I thought I was prepared for this, but two days before they left, I was in deep mourning because it felt like another loss in a series of losses after my parents and several dear friends had passed on in recent years.
I needed to pray, so I went for a walk. I cried out to God: “Help me!” Then I heard someone call my name. My first instinct was to look up, but instead I looked behind me to see my neighbor walking towards me. She gave me a big hug, told me she’d been thinking of me, and asked how I was. I told her my struggle, and she understood since she had children hundreds of miles away in multiple directions. We talked for a while about turning to God for help, and I knew she was exactly the right person to be with at that moment.
That afternoon I read a passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy that reminded me that God, Love, had created my sons: “Keep distinctly in thought that man is the offspring of God, not of man; that man is spiritual, not material; . . .” (p. 396). I knew that both my sons needed to have their own life experiences and that I could trust God, their Father-Mother, to take care of them.
