Faith in God Sustained Us

Faith in God Sustained Us

“Is anyone crying for help? God is listening, ready to rescue you.
If your heart is broken, you’ll find God right there;

if you’re kicked in the gut, he’ll help you catch your breath.”
Psalm 34:17-18 The Message (MSG)

            My dad passed away when I turned fifteen.

            His death was not only a traumatic loss for me as a teenager, but also for my mom and my sister Edna who was six years older than I.

            Throughout my childhood and into my adolescence, the four of us were a close family who always worshipped together. My relationship with my dad had always been special. We were very close.

            Dad was six-feet tall and very healthy before he contracted a serious strep throat infection while in his twenties. The doctors told him his mitral valve was damaged, and his life expectancy would be forty years of age.

            Despite his diagnosis, Dad remained vibrant through his late forties, almost a decade beyond what his prognosis predicted.

            My sister Edna, six years older than I, married a man in the army. When they moved to Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina, the three of us keenly felt her absence.

            Less than five months later, on November 8, 1958, Mom and I were with him when Dad departed this life at the age of fifty-one. It was a difficult time.

            Mom was strong, I was vulnerable, but faith in God sustained us both.

            We focused on my obtaining a college education and both worked faithfully toward achieving that goal. With God’s help, not only that goal but more were accomplished.

            I graduated from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts with a bachelor of science degree in healthcare administration, attended graduate school and went on to have a very successful career. I was able to assist my mom financially over the years.

            Through our greatest loss, Faith in God kept us focused and even made us happy and successful.  Thomas Sullivan Cinquini