Many Waters Cannot quench the Fire of Love nor can the Floods Drown It
Song of Solomon 8:7
This site is dedicated
to the life
of
Jerome St Elmo Nicholson
1948 - 2011
What do you do my fellow humans when you learn that your hero, your mentor,
your precious father has been told that his days on earth are numbered? Well
right after you recover your breath and pick yourself up off the kitchen floor,
you will call out to your God to grant you mercy and healing for your loved one.
This is for what we prayed most fervently for months after dad’s diagnosis of
pancreatic cancer. Though our prayers were not answered in the way we thought
it would be, today we feel truly blessed. You see, instead of our father
receiving a physical healing, the Lord healed his soul and spirit and caused him
to be a witness for him in a mighty way in his final days. My dad was
miraculously and wonderfully healed because now His restless soul has found
peace with his Eternal Father. His soul and spirit now soars in the company of
angels and he is one with his Maker.
And what do you do dad, when you are alone with your thoughts about death and
dying? This is the question I posed to my father after one of our trips to the
oncologist. His response was that he was able to handle this ‘firing process’ so
well because of his Faith in God and secondly because of a life changing book he
had read called, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. He said he had been given this book a
little over a year ago. My father said, “After several readings I was awakened to
a whole new way of living out my life’s purpose.”
My curiosity was peaked and I too began reading this book and it became
immediately apparent to me what my father meant.
It was almost an instantaneous ‘awakening’. The book essentially talks about losing
your ‘self’ to find it in the Lord. It tells us that we have to be still and
know that God is the great I Am. We have to be still and know that God is a
spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. I
stand firmly behind my position that right after we have mined the Nuggets of
Truth from The Holy Bible, this book should be required reading for
everyone.
And so I ask you gentle human, “what do you do when you realise that your
father has actually taken his final breath and that the dream is actually real -
one of nightmarish proportions?" Well, right after you pick yourself up off the
hospice floor, you cry out to God for a peace that passeth all understanding and
you thank the Lord that your father has gone to heaven. Then, what do you do next, when you realise
that your grief stricken 'self talk' is only the rational part of your brain speaking
and that your human self is saying in actuality that, "Emotionally speaking, I am a hot molten mess,". I ask of you what does one do? Well You just might seek refuge in the the comforting arms of your mother who gave you your first knowledge of the wonderful person that your father truly was - A truly one of a kind. My dear mother also gave me this wonderful quote by Hilary Cooper:
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, But by the moments
that take our breaths away."
I’m sure Jerome did take my mother’s breath away back in the day, but he was
just that kind of person. He was like a breath of fresh air in any situation and to
many who knew him. Sometimes He would leave me laughing so hard I could hardly
catch my breath. Like the time this past winter when he bundled himself up,
went outside, threw his 62 year old self down in the snow, and got someone to
take a picture of him making snow angels. Why? Just so he could make a point to me and
his grandkids that the snow is way more awesome in Toronto than in Texas.
And what do we all do after today, when we go home and realize that today we sang
funeral songs for Jerome St Elmo Nicholson? Well, we could laugh at the fond
memories of his antics, cry and beat our breasts, shake our heads in anguish,
cry silent tears of unspeakable pain, sit in shocked silence, but above all, my sincere wish
for us, my fellow humans is that when the dust settles we will fall on our knees and pray to Our father God,
pray fervently that when we grow up we will find a peaceful place, Just like our father Jerome has. A Haven of rest, safe in the everlasting arms of our Eternal Father.
your precious father has been told that his days on earth are numbered? Well
right after you recover your breath and pick yourself up off the kitchen floor,
you will call out to your God to grant you mercy and healing for your loved one.
This is for what we prayed most fervently for months after dad’s diagnosis of
pancreatic cancer. Though our prayers were not answered in the way we thought
it would be, today we feel truly blessed. You see, instead of our father
receiving a physical healing, the Lord healed his soul and spirit and caused him
to be a witness for him in a mighty way in his final days. My dad was
miraculously and wonderfully healed because now His restless soul has found
peace with his Eternal Father. His soul and spirit now soars in the company of
angels and he is one with his Maker.
And what do you do dad, when you are alone with your thoughts about death and
dying? This is the question I posed to my father after one of our trips to the
oncologist. His response was that he was able to handle this ‘firing process’ so
well because of his Faith in God and secondly because of a life changing book he
had read called, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. He said he had been given this book a
little over a year ago. My father said, “After several readings I was awakened to
a whole new way of living out my life’s purpose.”
My curiosity was peaked and I too began reading this book and it became
immediately apparent to me what my father meant.
It was almost an instantaneous ‘awakening’. The book essentially talks about losing
your ‘self’ to find it in the Lord. It tells us that we have to be still and
know that God is the great I Am. We have to be still and know that God is a
spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. I
stand firmly behind my position that right after we have mined the Nuggets of
Truth from The Holy Bible, this book should be required reading for
everyone.
And so I ask you gentle human, “what do you do when you realise that your
father has actually taken his final breath and that the dream is actually real -
one of nightmarish proportions?" Well, right after you pick yourself up off the
hospice floor, you cry out to God for a peace that passeth all understanding and
you thank the Lord that your father has gone to heaven. Then, what do you do next, when you realise
that your grief stricken 'self talk' is only the rational part of your brain speaking
and that your human self is saying in actuality that, "Emotionally speaking, I am a hot molten mess,". I ask of you what does one do? Well You just might seek refuge in the the comforting arms of your mother who gave you your first knowledge of the wonderful person that your father truly was - A truly one of a kind. My dear mother also gave me this wonderful quote by Hilary Cooper:
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, But by the moments
that take our breaths away."
I’m sure Jerome did take my mother’s breath away back in the day, but he was
just that kind of person. He was like a breath of fresh air in any situation and to
many who knew him. Sometimes He would leave me laughing so hard I could hardly
catch my breath. Like the time this past winter when he bundled himself up,
went outside, threw his 62 year old self down in the snow, and got someone to
take a picture of him making snow angels. Why? Just so he could make a point to me and
his grandkids that the snow is way more awesome in Toronto than in Texas.
And what do we all do after today, when we go home and realize that today we sang
funeral songs for Jerome St Elmo Nicholson? Well, we could laugh at the fond
memories of his antics, cry and beat our breasts, shake our heads in anguish,
cry silent tears of unspeakable pain, sit in shocked silence, but above all, my sincere wish
for us, my fellow humans is that when the dust settles we will fall on our knees and pray to Our father God,
pray fervently that when we grow up we will find a peaceful place, Just like our father Jerome has. A Haven of rest, safe in the everlasting arms of our Eternal Father.
