My husband and I lived in the same ward as my angel mother. Each Sunday, as a member of the Relief Society presidency, I sat at the front of the Relief Society room, facing the sisters. My mother always sat in the same place on the front row. <\/p>
I enjoyed watching her responses to the lessons and hearing her comments. After each meeting, she kissed my cheek and squeezed my hand. My mother and I were close, so it broke my heart when she passed away unexpectedly. <\/p>
After her funeral, my emotions remained tender. When Sunday arrived, my husband asked if I would be all right attending church without him. His calling often took him away from our ward. <\/p>
\u201cI will be all right until I see Mom\u2019s empty chair,\u201d I said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I can see that empty chair and keep my emotions under control.\u201d <\/p>
My husband suggested that I try not to look at the chair. I decided to do my best. <\/p>
Everyone at church was supportive and loving. When it came time to go to Relief Society, I took my seat at the front of the room, but I kept my eyes on the floor. <\/p>
As the lesson began, however, I couldn\u2019t help but look toward my mother\u2019s usual spot. I expected to see her empty chair, but instead I saw my ministering sister sitting in her place. She smiled at me. I felt relief and gratitude for her kindness. I was able to get through the meeting without being overcome by grief. After the meeting I thanked her. <\/p>
\u201cSeeing Mom\u2019s empty chair was the one thing I knew I couldn\u2019t handle today. How did you know?\u201d I asked her. <\/p>
\u201cWhen I walked into the room today, I had a feeling that seeing her empty chair would be hard for you,\u201d she replied. \u201cSo I decided to sit there.\u201d <\/p>
This kind act meant more to me than she knew. I am thankful she was in tune with the Spirit\u2019s prompting. I know that even small acts can have a healing effect on those we minister to. I believe this is how the Savior would have us minister to each other.<\/p>
By Catherine McDermott, Utah, USA<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My husband and I lived in the same ward as my angel mother. Each Sunday, as a member of the Relief Society presidency, I sat at the front of the Relief Society room, facing the sisters. My mother always sat in the same place on the front row. I enjoyed watching her responses to the lessons and hearing her comments. After each meeting, she kissed my cheek and squeezed my hand. My mother and I were close, so it broke my heart when she passed away unexpectedly. After her funeral, my emotions remained tender. When Sunday arrived, my husband asked if I would be all right attending church without him. His calling often took him away from our ward. \u201cI will be all right until I see Mom\u2019s empty chair,\u201d I said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I can see that empty chair and keep my emotions under control.\u201d My husband suggested that I try not to look at the chair. I decided to do my best. Everyone at church was supportive and loving. When it came time to go to Relief Society, I took my seat at the front of the room, but I kept my eyes on the floor. As the lesson began, however, I couldn\u2019t help but look toward my mother\u2019s usual spot. I expected to see her empty chair, but instead I saw my ministering sister sitting in her place. She smiled at me. I felt relief and gratitude for her kindness. I was able to get through the meeting without being overcome by grief. After the meeting I thanked her. \u201cSeeing Mom\u2019s empty chair was the one thing I knew I couldn\u2019t handle today. How did you know?\u201d I asked her. \u201cWhen I walked into the room today, I had a feeling that seeing her empty chair would be hard for you,\u201d she replied. \u201cSo I decided to sit there.\u201d This kind act meant more to me than she knew. I am thankful she was in tune with the Spirit\u2019s prompting. I know that even small acts can have a healing effect on those we minister to. I believe this is how the Savior would have us minister to each other. By Catherine McDermott, Utah, USA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[64,44,42,40,41],"class_list":["post-1500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hope","tag-answer-to-prayer","tag-fingerprints-of-god","tag-god","tag-hope","tag-miracles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1500"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1516,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500\/revisions\/1516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}