She made you feel like home when you were near. She had long blond hair that swished as she walked. While physically beautiful, it was her inner joy, peace, and abundant love that made her gloriously stunning.
“Bad things don’t happen to good people, right? Wrong!”
When Julie collapsed at the dinner table, she assumed she’d just been pushing too hard. But within days, “the C word” became her word. The diagnosis was cancer.
Her husband held her hand. Her daughters sat quietly on the couch. I sat across from her, trying to hold back the heaviness in my chest.
I knew, when she looked at my face, she also knew that this wasn’t a little cancer (as if there is such a thing as a little cancer).
At first, it was chaos. But Julie did something remarkable: she leaned into her diagnosis with eyes wide open. She asked hard questions. She sought second opinions. She fought the good fight with great faith.
Even as her body failed, her spirit never did.
She clung to God and held tightly to hope. Hope is the effervescent emotion that transports us from where we are to where or what we desire. Next week I will share more about the power of hope.
Julie taught me that the greatest tragedy isn’t a terminal diagnosis—it’s walking into it unprepared and without hope. That’s why I wrote Anticipating Heaven—to share stories like hers, and to help you face life’s most fragile moments with strength and eternity in mind.
If you’re in the middle of the fog, I also created Resources for a Serious Diagnosis. It’s a free, practical roadmap—filled with the wisdom I wish every family had when they sit in the doctor’s office, dazed and devastated.
If you’ve whispered, “If only I had known…”—this is your chance to know. And to prepare well.
Here with you and for you in hope,
Dr. Pamela Prince Pyle
