Telling Mark

One of the things you never prepare yourself for in life is telling your children that you are dying.

After the initial diagnosis we knew that we needed to sit down with our sons and tell them the news. We decided to wait with telling them for a couple of days for various reasons. One reason was that our oldest son Nicolas was in the Dragon Boat races to raise money for Breast cancer research and the other was that we needed a couple of days to catch our breath and absorb the news ourselves.

It was Sunday morning before we were getting ready to leave for church and we called Mark upstairs for "the talk". How do you begin a conversation like this? Wes did not pull any punches, but simply stated the facts, at least what little facts we knew. What we did know was a malignant brain tumour was not good.

Wes shared his heart with Mark, "The human part of me wants to be here to watch you get married and have my grandchildren, but I'm not sure that that is possible anymore." To sit and watch a father give the heart wrenching news of his impending death to his youngest son is something that I never thought I would have to witness. Wes was so gentle with Mark, sharing with him that he did not fear death. He shared with him the peace that he was experiencing, peace that came from his relationship with Jesus Christ. He was honest and real, something that our boys have been used to from him their whole life.

I just knew one thing...Wes was a very important part of our son's life and he wasn't ready to let go of his dad just yet and our battle was just beginning.

I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. Psalm 63:6-8