Resilience

Resilience

Angels Three:  The Karen Perry Story by Landon J. Napolean

What’s the worst day of your life?  Was it a terrible tragedy, a frightening diagnosis, an unexpected job loss, a devastating physical or emotional attack, a financial nightmare, or a heartbreaking relationship end?

Karen Perry endured what no mother should.  In 2011, the night before Thanksgiving, all three of her children and her ex-husband were killed in a plane crash in the Superstition Mountains.  How on earth does someone survive such an unfathomable tragedy, wake up each morning, and face the day?  There isn’t a Thanksgiving morning that I don’t remember her, since then. 

Angels Three:  The Karen Perry Story has some answers.  Thankfully, Perry had a strong support system of family, friends, and co-workers.   Months and months of grief counseling provided some solace.  Now, she has now found some purpose, meaning, and a future by establishing a non-profit agency assisting other children. 

Certainly there is evidence of God’s presence in the midst of this devastating story.  How do we account for one of her sons asking her only a week before the accident, “If I die next week does that mean you will still be my Mother?”  Was God somehow whispering the unthinkable warning, or was her son simply voicing the thought that all mothers dread, when we watch our babies sleeping at night, starting Kindergarten, learning to drive, leaving home?  While searching for scripture for the memorial service, her best friend randomly found Psalm 43:3, “Send forth your light, your truth.  Let them guide me.  Let them bring me to your holy mountains to the place where you dwell.” 

Perry’s journey with obstacles and challenges began even before this life changing day.  Her only daughter was born with a debilitating seizure disorder, necessitating several brain surgeries.  This daughter, and one of her two sons, was diagnosed on the autism spectrum disorder.  Perry herself almost died from a toxic ulcer, years before.  And, she and her husband divorced before the accident.  I couldn’t help thinking about the trials of Job! 

We may never understand why God called these children home.  In the earthly realm, the accident was attributed to pilot error.  Do some people seem to receive an unjust amount of difficulty?  If so, are they given an extra dose of resilience to endure these circumstances…or does God give us all the strength and courage we need to endure the unendurable?  At times in my life, I fell apart in the face of unspeakable pain, questioned my own faith, judged my own weakness.  Other times, people told me they admired my strength, when I felt I had none.  Perry’s story reminds me that God is still evident in the midst of crisis:  a child who simply desired to be loved and remembered when he’s gone—don’t we all?; a community of love and support—Jesus with skin on; a timely Bible verse;  and the courage to find purpose and meaning to move forward and serve and bless others.