Column for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A family’s goodbye and the enduring hope of the resurrection

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Philippi Church, chapter 1.

I watched her countenance as she looked at another doctor bearing bad news. Her beautiful green eyes, full of life, were attentive to every word. 

She smiled at the solemn physician and nodded. She understood it fully well. The end was near. 

“Whether I go to my home in Rossville or my home up there,” she said as she pointed upward, “I am going home, doctor, and I will be fine.”

On March 30, my dear mother-in-law drew her last breath after a short but heavy health battle. My husband and I, together with my brother-in-law and his wife, had the priceless opportunity to be with her every hour of the day and night for the last couple of months of her life. 

She spent most of her last two months in two hospitals and a rehabilitation facility. During each stay, she made friends with doctors, nurses, and everyone else on staff. We witnessed doctors who were grave and unsmiling at first quickly change their demeanor when they saw her. We heard from many staff members that she was their favorite patient. She smiled, laughed, and joked around with anyone who would visit. 

Even in Nana’s most difficult moments, as her condition worsened and her prognosis became increasingly worse, she never lost her sense of gratitude and awe at God’s blessings.

“I am so blessed,” she would say. “I’ve had a good life.”

She Lives

One day, when she and I were alone in the hospital room, we talked about the Apostle Paul’s words in the first chapter of his letter to the Philippians. In that first chapter, the apostle talks about his longing to be with his Savior in Heaven. We talked about Paul’s many trials, and his assurance that his life was in God’s hands, and when he died, he would be embraced by the resurrected Christ.

Indeed, as one reads Paul’s letters to the churches, it becomes clear that his assurance of the resurrection of the dead was as strong as his understanding of his life’s purpose. 

I witnessed that same assurance in my mother-in-law’s last days on earth. She would have loved to have stayed with us. But her hope and certainty of Heaven and the resurrection became stronger as her body grew weaker. And so, though she died, she lives!

Oh, what a promise to hang on to as we celebrate this Easter!

For those of us who believe, the grave is not the end—it is simply a doorway. A passage from the temporal to the eternal. From pain to peace. From faith to sight.

That is the hope we hold this Easter. It’s not a vague wish or mere tradition. It is the firm assurance that because Christ lives, we too shall live. 

Nana believed this with all her heart. Her faith wasn’t shaken by pain or dimmed by the shadow of death. Conversely, as her physical strength declined, her spiritual confidence grew stronger. She was ready to live for Christ, or go to him—not because she had given up, but because she trusted the One who had overcome.

As each family member held her hand in those final hours, we felt the sorrow of impending loss. But that sorrow was extraordinarily mingled with something that surpasses all understanding—holy peace. The kind of peace that comes only from knowing that death does not have the final word.

Because Christ conquered the grave, those who believe in him will rise again. That’s the Easter promise. Nana knew that. She lived that. And this Easter, we can rejoice knowing that she joins the throng in Heaven, worshipping the resurrected King.

“Tomb, thou shalt not hold him longer;

 death is strong, but life is stronger;

 Stronger than the dark, the light;

 Stronger than the wrong, the right;

 Faith and hope triumphant say,

Christ will rise on Easter Day.”

— Phillips Brooks

This article was originally published in Patricia’s column for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Saturday, April 19, 2025. Click HERE to find it on the AJC’s website.