[mombonn]

I am so sad for you and your wife, but know that as you continue to lean on the Lord you will draw strength and comfort from Him. I will keep you both in prayer.

[ejo]

"God giveth, God taketh away" words that have been pondered over and over again by many a family member, or spouse. No one has yet found the answer here, but the Lord in all His wisdom on receiving that little soul into heaven makes known His reason. So rest assured his little soul is at peace and it is us, that remain that have to keep our faith strong, Michael, fought his battle courageously, it is up to us now to emulate him and show the same courage. Peace to you and your family.

[TxBec]

Saying a prayer for your family.

[afraidfortherepublic]

My deepest sympathies. I shall devote all my prayers to you and your family this morning. May God hold you in His arms at this difficult time. May Michael rest in peace.

When you learn the cause of his illness, please post and let us all know. And please post and let us know how YOU and your wife are doing. (signed) with tears.

[RnMomof7]

My eyes are filled with tears for you. I am at currently at the home of my son Shawn in S C his 17 month old son drown last summer. The pain is so deep..and so lasting, my husband was just crying in the kitchen a few minutes ago.

There are no true words of comfort for you....I know that...

My son and his wife have started to go on but their lives,and yours will never be the same. Something is missing, there is an empty spot that can never be filled by anything or anyone else.

I do not know if you are a Christian or not, but our greatest comfort has been in knowing we will see Nathan again.

This is not a punishment from God..He brought Michael home to himeself, to Him it is a homecoming

My grandson Zack wrote a poem when Nathan died..It went something like this..God looked down and saw a beautiful apple tree and one of the apples was golden so He picked it..

Your arms are empty, and your heart is torn ...but Michael rests safely in the arms of the one that made him and loves him .

May God give you peace pray for you

terry

[xzins]

Oxford, I truly grieve with you over the loss of your little one. This is a time when nothing seems to make sense and no one seems able to explain. I pray that you and your wife draw close to one another for comfort and for courage. I pray with you for the little one now in God's loving arms, and I pray that reassurance of God's love throughout this entire ordeal flood your soul.

[RnMomof7]

[redhead]

Dearest OM: Of course we will be praying for you. Your loss touches me so deeply I can't begin to express it. In 1996, our 2-year-old grandson, Michael, was murdered in Tucson just 6 days after his second birthday. I still grieve, but now he's my little saint. Please know that all of us are very touched and moved by your loss. It's always very hard to condole with one who has lost a child. May Jesus and His holy mother comfort you and your sorrowing family.

Redhead

[firewalk]

Morning prayers

[NYCop]

My family prays for yours. Be strong and let the good Lord guide you through the maze of life.

[MileHi]

I am at a loss. What a shock.

My God keep you and comfort you through an unbearable time. Turn to him and each other. Stay well and God bless

[pegleg]

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family

Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord.
And may perpetual light shine upon him
May the souls of the faithfully departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.
Amen.

[billbears]

Oxford my thoughts and prayers are with you, your wife, and the rest of the family for strength and power from God. You are in my prayers sir. Added to the Daily Prayer Thread

[F-117A]

God bless!

[lsee]

Ironically, my child had a high fever last night...

and when I read your post, I nearly burst into tears, imagining how helpless and frustrated you must feel not knowing why THIS fever was capable of killing your boy. I sincerely hope the doctors discover exactly what went wrong, not that this will comfort you much. But it might save another family from similar agony. My prayers are with you and your family. I hugged both my children tightly in Michael's honor this morning. May you keep the memory of how he touched your lives forever in your hearts.

[eleni121]

So sorry to hear of your loss. Just remember your little one as well as all little ones are enveloped in Jesus' loving arms...we do not control these things.

[LaBelleDameSansMerci]

"...I don't know what we are going to do...."

Yes you DO know what you are going to do. You don't want to know--you want this cup to be taken from you--- but you KNOW.

You will stand up on achy, unwilling legs and hold back the avalanche of despair which is threatening your whole family. Every stomach-turning day you will get up and put one foot in front of the other. You will flex the unwilling muscles in your hands and face. You will perform the unbearable routines of everyday life even though your mind is engulfed in chaos. You will stiffen your weary spine so the unformed spines of your children will not be crushed under the weight. You will face down the monsters of despair, grief, rage and lethargy because your family--living and dead--needs you to do so. You will muscle your way through the sea of well-meaning people who will attempt to tame your wild grief and who will murder you over and over with their dissections of your wound; people who will say exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time--as I am doing, perhaps. You know all this.

You know what you are going to do.

In a Dark Time
Theodore Roethke,

In a dark time, the eye begins to see,
I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;
I hear my echo in the echoing wood--
A lord of nature weeping to a tree.
I live between the heron and the wren,
Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.

What's madness but nobility of soul
At odds with circumstance? The day's on fire!
I know the purity of pure despair,
My shadow pinned against a sweating wall.
That place among the rocks--is it a cave,
Or winding path? The edge is what I have.

A steady storm of correspondences!
A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon,
And in broad day the midnight come again!
A man goes far to find out what he is--
Death of the self in a long, tearless night,
All natural shapes blazing unnatural light.

Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire.
My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,
Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I?
A fallen man, I climb out of my fear.
The mind enters itself, and God the mind,
And one is One, free in the tearing wind.

[The_Reader_David]

Memory Eternal! Memory Eternal! Memory Eternal!

[AuntB]

Words cannot express what I feel for you both at this moment. My greatest dread is outliving my child. We hold you and your precious child in our thoughts and prayers.

As children bring their broken toys with tears for us to mend, I brought my broken dreams to God, because he is my friend.

But then instead of leaving him in peace to work alone, I hung around and tried to help in ways that were my own. At last I cried, "How can you be so slow!"

He said," my child what could I do, you never would let go."anonymous.

[Nubbin]

Oh Oxford, I am so very sorry. I don't know what to say except that I am praying for you and for your family.

Sorrowful Virgin Mary, Mother of love, of sorrow, and of mercy, pray for OxordMovement and his family.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, strengthened in your agony by an angel, strengthen OxfordMovement's family. In your infinite mercy assist them by your powerful grace.