Sharon spent a lot of her childhood with the closest friend of her mother, Marian, and always considered her and her husband as part of her family. Marian had taken care of Sharon periodically, as Sharon’s mother worked and took time to recover from the loss of her first husband.

Marian was a brilliant woman, in every respect. A highly gifted school teacher and loved in the community, finally retired and spent the rest of her days in their home in southern Maine. Sharon and I committed to help them live in their home in their old age. We would not send them to a nursing home. Marian’s husband, we called him Honky, a nickname he earned as a child honking the horn on his tricycle, died at a time when Marian was becoming more and more fragile and suffering dementia. We hired one of the members of our church to live with her and take care of her in her home, which went extremely well, with the exception of Marian, from day to day, never remembering who this woman was and what was she doing in her home.

There came a point where Marian was too difficult for this woman, and Sharon and I decided that I should take care of Marian until we could find another way to care for her. Marian always knew who I was, and with her incredible sense of humor, we always had wonderful conversations. She had the capacity to smile and laugh, even at herself.

One evening, sitting in her chair, she began calling out for Honky, saying she wanted to leave and go home. This went on for several minutes, and I finally went beside her and took her hand and said, “Marian, remember Honky died a year ago?” She looked at me, smiled and laughed, “I guess he’s not coming then, is he…” We both laughed together for quite a while.

It became clear after several doctor examinations, that Marian was dying, and in discussing this with Sharon, it would be pointless to make any changes or move her, when she was getting excellent care in her home, with nurses coming every other day, plus we had committed to her that we would not take her out of her home to die. I began sleeping in the dining room to be closer to her bedroom, and the evening before the Lord took her, I went in to see her. Her arms reached up and I gave her a hug. She asked how I could eat ice cream without her, and I did not know how she could know that twenty minutes before, I had some ice cream in the kitchen. “I saw you…” she said with a smile. She hugged me again and said she wished I was her own. “I am, Marian,” I said. She hugged me and smiled. I sat some more on her bed and held her hands as she drifted off again.

I was amazed that she saw me in the kitchen, when she could not get out of her bed and had been sleeping for many, many hours. I began to think her spirit saw me.

Early in the morning, a very bright light was shining in the dining room where I was sleeping, and woke me up. It scared me at first but then I realized it was the moon. It was shining in my face and was incredibly bright. I got up and looked out the front window in the dining room. It had just snowed, and it was very beautiful. As I was looking out at the circular drive and garden area that it surrounded, four small dear began leaping in the garden area, playing and jumping, and then leaped over the fence toward the house and went to the entryway of Marian’s bedroom. They all stood within about five feet of her door, pawing on the ground, pawing on the snow, as if making a signal, and looking at the door. They did this for two or three minutes, and then bounded back over the fence into the garden area and began playing again, jumping, eventually running across the street into the school playfield.

It looked as if they came to call Marian, and her spirit joined with them to play in the snow, in the garden she loved so dearly. Sometime early in that morning on that snowy, moonlit night, the Lord took Marian home. To be honest, I believe the deer were masquerading angels, coming and inviting her to come with them to the Lord.  


Marian’s Song

Awakened by the moon,
My soul longs to see Him.
I will wait and watch and lie still

My sighs call,
I hear the breath of heaven.  
Radiant light so bright

Slumber disturbed
As heavenly rays beam,
Beckoning me.  

Descending lights announcing His coming
In gloriousarray,
Shooting their brilliance through the night
Like clarion trumpets before the King.  

Deer wait at my door,
The gate to my garden,
Frost heavy in the night and on their breath

They call and pant To join them in His garden of delights,
To taste the wintered buds,
Alder, Juniper, Maple, Rose.

Brian Warner. Johanna’s Eleven (Kindle Locations 1473-1495).