I haven't posted anything in a while due to the turmoil of the last week. My dear mother-in-law passed away after 4 months of trying to recover from a difficult surgery in December. Although, we will miss her beyond what words can say, we are content in the knowledge that she is at peace and we WILL one day see her again, in Christ. Below is the eulogy that my husband wrote for his mother. A truly beautiful person inside and out.
On December 10th of 2010 my mother walked bravely into the Oklahoma Heart Hospital to have her heart’s mitral valve replaced. Four months later -- almost to the day -- a helicopter returned her to that same hospital just hours before she went to be with the Lord.
During the past four months she faced a life she never imagined could result from the operation she had chosen to undergo. Unable to walk, she spent weeks in rehab attempting to build up enough strength to get back on her feet. But constant infections, an inability to eat, and a gradually weakening heart left her unable to make any real progress, in spite of her determination to recover.
Looking back on all of this now, it’s hard to avoid thinking that she’d still be with us had she decided against the operation. But it would be wrong for us to say that her decision was a mistake. Mom made the wisest choice she could based on the information she was given. As Proverbs 16:33 reminds us, “The dice are thrown, but the Lord determines every outcome.” All we can do is trust the mystery of His perfect, unchanging plan and look forward to the day when He makes all things new.
There’s a lot I could say about mom. She loved the color red with an intensity most people reserve for their favorite football team. She had a life-long love of cats, and fully expected to see all of hers again one day. She had a beautiful singing voice, and spent most Sunday mornings watching the church service from the choir loft. She loved working in the church nursery. She learned sign language just so she could converse with her deaf students. She was almost too generous for her own good. And whenever someone asks me, “Is your mother Paula Rutledge?” I know what their next statement will be. “Oh, I love your Mom. She was my favorite math teacher. I was never able to understand it until she taught me.”
But most of all, she and my father have been an amazing picture of Christian parenting and marriage. They had been best friends since childhood, and they treated each other that way. My sister and I never had to worry that our home would be broken. Our parents understood that love is a promise.
They showed us America, never going on vacation without us. We never heard them worry or argue about money or possessions. When it came to our paths in life, they only cared that we did what was morally right and loved the Lord. When I chose to become an artist, my physicist father and mathematician mother supported me completely. I pray that I can pass on a fraction of their selflessness, stability, and unconditional love to my own family.
So I’ll miss my mom, but I am relieved for her. As I drove her wheelchair out to the garage, helped get her hospital bed out of the living room, and watched dad throw away the leg braces she had been forced to wear, I took comfort in knowing that each of these represented a trial that was now over. She finished the race that was set before her, and now in Christ she has been set free.
