I come from a family of strong women. There's a very long line of us. It's the Scots and the Welsh blood that pounds though our veins that gives us steel in our backbone and sometimes, stone in our hearts. Tragedy may beset us, but it doesn't conquer us. For anyone who read Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind, they'll remember Scarlet's constant shield..."there's always tomorrow". That is strength in her, not weakness as so many people are apt to feel. She'll make it through that war, that flood, that death, that drought, because there's always tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll think about it, there'll be an answer tomorrow. I'm thinking along these lines because our nephew Joey lies in a hospital, critically injured and if I don't think that, if I don't hold on to that one thought, Joey will be here tomorrow, it would be to much like giving up on him. I don't plan to do that. Strong women deal with the hard knocks as though they have to entertain everyone around them, keep them from thinking about what may lie ahead. Even at my own mother's funeral, I felt I was the hostess at a tea party and had to keep everyone from realizing that the guest of honor at the front of the Church was not going to get up and hold court. Oh, you had to know my Mother...holding court was the exact term to use there. That was not disrespect, but words of the deepest love. Now here is Joey, who very well may not recover from his injuries and I'm talking to his sweet wife, Karen, on the phone and I hear it. I hear that strong woman strain in her voice, as though I was sitting across from her and she was about to offer me a cup of coffee. She has that need to hold things together, to put it off until tomorrow, to stay awake for that one word from the doctor that will let her relax, knowing she'll never relax until the day he walks out of the hospital on his own. So, I told her what my best advice was. He's asleep. Everyone has gone home. Take a nap. Rest . Curl up with a fuzzy blanket and get strong for him. You're no good to him worn out. Will she take my advice? She's a strong woman, I have a feeling she's sleeping to gear up for another long day...tomorrow.

PS
Please say a prayer tonight for Michael Joe Andrus that God will do what is best for him. It's the prayer I'll say again tonight...keep him and his family, especially Karen his wife, in your prayers