T is for Tragedy

Continuing the A to Z Challenge, using "my daddy's words" as a theme, I continue here with a question that evokes both sadness and hope. 

The question put to my father is this:

Did a tragedy ever strike your family?  If so, how did it affect you?


When I was almost too young to remember, a baby sister was born, Delores Allene. She was a "blue baby" and lived about six weeks.  She weighed 2+ pounds at the time of her death. 

I remember very little about her, but her death had a profound impact on my parents.    They often talked about the intense loss they felt, the anguish of spirit, the fragility of life.  When Mom became very old and unable to remember recent happenings, she could still draw from memory the birth and death of Delores Allene.  She talked of wanting to go to Heaven to see her and be with her.  Dad sometimes referred to her coming, then going, in his sermons.  With others, I look forward to meeting the sister I never knew--someday in Heaven.