Anna Resurget

Our family and close friends remember May 7 as a significant day for us. This is the day in 2008 that we lost our daughter, Anna. I will not retell the story here, but if you are reading about this for the first time, there is plenty of reading material from past blog posts here to find out the story.

Every year on this day, I post something here. Shortly after her death, I would share about how we were handling the loss. I would write about the changes in mourning with the passing of time. Sometimes, I would take the opportunity to share something about Anna that was funny or interesting. There is so much about her that fit into both of those categories.

This year, however, my mind is elsewhere on this day. It is not away from Anna, of course. It is difficult not to be aware of that loss every day of the year, let alone on these special days. What I mean is that with the news of the world, remembering Anna’s life takes on a different tinge this year.

With the leak of the Supreme Court materials concerning the likely overturning of Roe v. Wade, I have been seeing and reading many stories from women who have had miscarriages or lost young babies. I am reminded of our own story in losing our third child in a miscarriage. The sorrow at that time was very real. As real as the sorrow we felt at Anna’s death, but just not as deeply penetrating or life changing.

I did not think that I would ever see Roe v. Wade overturned. Despite all of the activism from the pro-life community over the years, I just did not think that this sweeping of a change would ever happen. I feel the same way, I think, that my mother did when Barack Obama was elected president in 2008. She did not vote for him. She would not have supported his views and actions as president. But after the election, I remember talking to my mother and hearing her say how happy she was that he had been elected. “I never thought I would see a black president in my lifetime. I’m glad that it finally happened.”

In addition to the news from the Supreme Court, we have the ongoing daily news of war in Ukraine. This story has taken a personal turn for us after Timberley traveled to Poland to help in a refugee center there. As I am writing this she is preparing for another trip to Moldova for the same purpose. On her trip to Poland, she met many families coming out of Ukraine, all of them having tragic stories of loss and uncertainty. She became close with several of the families and continues to be in contact with them now, following their news as they move to various parts of the globe to begin their new lives.

With the news from Ukraine, and with Timberley’s personal involvement with the Ukrainian people, we are brought face to face with questions of life and death. Questions of war and peace. Kindness and brutality.

All of these things serve to bring a different light to an old subject–remembering Anna’s life and death. Of course, I could imagine Anna’s responses to the events of the day. But I don’t see the purpose in that right now. What is important is that on this day when a singular event is before us in our memories, this singular moment that created a before-and-after mark in our lives, we have reason to hope for the future. The war in Ukraine will cease someday. All wars will. There will be an opportunity for peace. There will be a time for rebuilding, for replanting. And if we are not sure about the truth of that, we can look to the unimaginable news that the nearly 50 years of complete freedom to kill unborn children in the United States will be coming to an end.

So today, I want to remember Anna’s life, her humor, wisdom, and wit, by thinking hopefully about the future of Ukraine and for all nations at war, and by celebrating the news that the terror of abortion-on-demand in America will be coming to an end.