Hi Daddy! Today marks 13 years since you left this Earth. Since your departure, I have grown into a woman tickled now at the passion I now have for organizing the masses and telling everyone about Jesus. You have truely made an indellible mark on my life in such a way that I talk to Darcy and Tally about you often and yet although you are absent from the body, your greatness lives on. When you first left my mourning was complicated. I could not understand why someone with 3 kidney transplants and 55 operations could not bounce back as you always did. I struggled with what life was going to look like after you left but I tell you Daddy…..God has become the greatest GPS ever!
It’s never easy losing someone that you love and I am a proponent of therapy to assist in identifying and walking through the grief progression. In addition journaling has been a major help. With all those special aides, surrendering to God has been a journey and I would not take anything for the development that accompanies it.
I remember asking God, when is mourning finished? This question can be answered in so many different ways but for me it is finished when I can speak about you with no pain. My sadness has turned to joy—the “fillers” that I used to grab onto to numb me to your passing have faded away like a puffed cloud of smoke. When I faced the reality of life without you here on Earth, the tightness in my chest alleviated and I found myself wanting to know who God was for myself rather than the days of being a PK (Preachers Kid- where God was God regardless). smile.
So I hope that you and Mommy are doing well and that you still shouting and preaching the gospel! I want you to know that all is well here! My determined purpose in life is to know Him (God).
Bonakasi Daddy! Bonakasi! I love you!
Danita Ogandaga, MSW 