Enduring With Hope
Illustration
Stories
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Romans 8:22-25)
“I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name for ever. For great is your steadfast love towards me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.” (Psalm 86:12-13)
There may be nothing harder than losing a child. George and Barbara Bush never stopped agonizing over the death of their 3-year-old, Robin, of leukemia in June of 1953. In his biography of the late president, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, Jon Meacham tells how the Bushes took their beloved little girl to Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York even though there was little hope of finding an effective treatment.
Meacham writes: "Barbara had only one rule for visitors: No tears in front of Robin. She didn't want the little girl scared by seeing grown-ups crying. 'Poor George had the most dreadful time,' recalled Barbara. 'He would say he had to go to the bathroom and step outside. We used to laugh and wonder if Robin thought he had the weakest bladder in the world,' recalled Barbara. 'Not true. He just had the most tender heart.'"
After several months of treatments "Robin went into a coma while her father was en route from Texas. Mother and father were both there at her bedside when the end came. 'One minute she was there, and the next she was gone,' recalled Barbara. 'I truly felt her soul go out of that beautiful little body.'" And Meacham added, "Barbara combed Robin's hair, and both parents held her a last time."
USA Today reporter Susan Page wrote that "Barbara collapsed into sorrow when Robin breathed her last and that it was her husband who helped her regain her composure. Later, Barbara would marvel that a tragedy that splits many couples had brought them closer. 'Time after time during the next six months,' she said, 'George would put me together again.'"
President Ronald Reagan was also profoundly affected by the death of a daughter. Patti Davis, the youngest daughter former President Ronald Reagan, has spent much of her life trying to understand her elusive and distant father. Dutch, the 1999 biography about her father by Edmund Morris, gave her some new insights and peace.
"Dutch is dedicated to Christine Reagan, a half-sister I never knew I had. Long before I was born she lived only nine hours — long enough to have a name and an effect on her parents' lives. Christine was folded into history and hidden away. Until now. It says so much about my father. He lost a child, and I think that loss was more than his heart could bear and so it did what hearts often do — shut down. Somewhere in the ache and silence and the ashes of a cremated child, he made sure he would never hurt like that again. No wonder he retreated from his children. No wonder he offered bewilderment instead of the demonstrative love my brother and sister and I wished for. I still don't fully understand my father. After all those years of exhaustive research, even Morris says the man is a mystery. But because of Morris' book, I have more clues, more threads to tie together. While I would gladly change many things in my past, I know now there is nothing more I could have done to know my father better. Morris has lifted some of the shadows for me. But others remain and always will. After reading Dutch, I am content to leave them there.”
(Patti Davis, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, October 17, 1999. From a piece that first appeared in The Washington Post.)
Roy Rodgers and Dale Evans, cowboy movie and television heroes to many of us who grew up in the 1940s and fifties, suffered the tragic loss of three of their seven children. Debbie was killed in a car accident when she was 12. John choked to death at the age of 18 while in the army in Germany. Robin, who was born with Down syndrome, died from complications of the disease before her second birthday.
Robin’s story was told in Dale Evans best-selling book, “Angel Unaware.” Evans wrote in the forward: “This is the story of what a baby girl named Robin Elizabeth accomplished in transforming the lives of the Roy Rogers family. Our baby came into the world with an appalling handicap... I believe with all my heart that God sent her on a two-year mission to our household, to strengthen us spiritually and to draw us closer together in the knowledge and love and fellowship of God. It has been said that tragedy and sorrow never leave us where they find us. In this instance, both Roy and I are grateful to God for the privilege of learning some great lessons of truth through his tiny messenger, Robin Elizabeth Rogers.”
Norman Vincent Peale wrote in his introduction to Angel Unaware:
“She is a mother who has won great victory over great sorrow. When she first told me the story you will read here, I realized that I was hearing of an amazing experience and standing in the presence of a great soul. I saw at once that Robin, her baby, had not lived and died in vain. Where most babies die and leave the mother crushed, Robin put on immortality and her mother found the very joy of God in what might otherwise have been an overwhelming tragedy.”
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StoryShare, July 23, 2023 issue.
Copyright 2023 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
“I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name for ever. For great is your steadfast love towards me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.” (Psalm 86:12-13)
There may be nothing harder than losing a child. George and Barbara Bush never stopped agonizing over the death of their 3-year-old, Robin, of leukemia in June of 1953. In his biography of the late president, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, Jon Meacham tells how the Bushes took their beloved little girl to Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York even though there was little hope of finding an effective treatment.
Meacham writes: "Barbara had only one rule for visitors: No tears in front of Robin. She didn't want the little girl scared by seeing grown-ups crying. 'Poor George had the most dreadful time,' recalled Barbara. 'He would say he had to go to the bathroom and step outside. We used to laugh and wonder if Robin thought he had the weakest bladder in the world,' recalled Barbara. 'Not true. He just had the most tender heart.'"
After several months of treatments "Robin went into a coma while her father was en route from Texas. Mother and father were both there at her bedside when the end came. 'One minute she was there, and the next she was gone,' recalled Barbara. 'I truly felt her soul go out of that beautiful little body.'" And Meacham added, "Barbara combed Robin's hair, and both parents held her a last time."
USA Today reporter Susan Page wrote that "Barbara collapsed into sorrow when Robin breathed her last and that it was her husband who helped her regain her composure. Later, Barbara would marvel that a tragedy that splits many couples had brought them closer. 'Time after time during the next six months,' she said, 'George would put me together again.'"
President Ronald Reagan was also profoundly affected by the death of a daughter. Patti Davis, the youngest daughter former President Ronald Reagan, has spent much of her life trying to understand her elusive and distant father. Dutch, the 1999 biography about her father by Edmund Morris, gave her some new insights and peace.
"Dutch is dedicated to Christine Reagan, a half-sister I never knew I had. Long before I was born she lived only nine hours — long enough to have a name and an effect on her parents' lives. Christine was folded into history and hidden away. Until now. It says so much about my father. He lost a child, and I think that loss was more than his heart could bear and so it did what hearts often do — shut down. Somewhere in the ache and silence and the ashes of a cremated child, he made sure he would never hurt like that again. No wonder he retreated from his children. No wonder he offered bewilderment instead of the demonstrative love my brother and sister and I wished for. I still don't fully understand my father. After all those years of exhaustive research, even Morris says the man is a mystery. But because of Morris' book, I have more clues, more threads to tie together. While I would gladly change many things in my past, I know now there is nothing more I could have done to know my father better. Morris has lifted some of the shadows for me. But others remain and always will. After reading Dutch, I am content to leave them there.”
(Patti Davis, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, October 17, 1999. From a piece that first appeared in The Washington Post.)
Roy Rodgers and Dale Evans, cowboy movie and television heroes to many of us who grew up in the 1940s and fifties, suffered the tragic loss of three of their seven children. Debbie was killed in a car accident when she was 12. John choked to death at the age of 18 while in the army in Germany. Robin, who was born with Down syndrome, died from complications of the disease before her second birthday.
Robin’s story was told in Dale Evans best-selling book, “Angel Unaware.” Evans wrote in the forward: “This is the story of what a baby girl named Robin Elizabeth accomplished in transforming the lives of the Roy Rogers family. Our baby came into the world with an appalling handicap... I believe with all my heart that God sent her on a two-year mission to our household, to strengthen us spiritually and to draw us closer together in the knowledge and love and fellowship of God. It has been said that tragedy and sorrow never leave us where they find us. In this instance, both Roy and I are grateful to God for the privilege of learning some great lessons of truth through his tiny messenger, Robin Elizabeth Rogers.”
Norman Vincent Peale wrote in his introduction to Angel Unaware:
“She is a mother who has won great victory over great sorrow. When she first told me the story you will read here, I realized that I was hearing of an amazing experience and standing in the presence of a great soul. I saw at once that Robin, her baby, had not lived and died in vain. Where most babies die and leave the mother crushed, Robin put on immortality and her mother found the very joy of God in what might otherwise have been an overwhelming tragedy.”
*****************************************
StoryShare, July 23, 2023 issue.
Copyright 2023 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
