Happy Birthday Mary, and We Miss You Rachel

Today is my little sister Mary's birthday. Mary is not only my blood sister, she is my sister in Christ, a bond which goes beyond the natural bonds of family and blood. Mary was the first of the Gillespie family to become a Christian even though she was the youngest. I persecuted her terribly for two or three years, until God decided to call me to Himself. Now I am so thankful that He chose to establish a beachhead in our family through Mary, and thankful that she was a good witness to Christ even during my family's darker days. And she's a good sis. I'm thankful for her.

Happy birthday Sis!

By God's providence Mary and her husband Sandy's first child Rachel was born on Mary's birthday - on September 16th, 1984. It has at times seemed a cruel providence as Rachel was struck down by an overwhelming bacterial infection and died at the age of 2 1/2 years old, on Feb 9, 1987. For a long time it was really painful and hard to acknowledge Mary's birthday. Now it provides a chance to remember Rachel, my parent's first grandchild.

Happy Birthday Rachel. We miss you.

I like this picture taken the summer before Rachel's death not in spite of its slight out of focus misty quality but because of it.

Please take the time if you have not before to look at a set of pictures that follows Rachel's young life. We don't want to forget her, or the world to forget her either.

In Memory of Rachel Elizabeth Johnson