Anne’s Story:
“2023 was a year full of God’s goodness!” I told my Bible study group early this year.
They were shocked—because 2023 had continued my series of unrelated health catastrophes.
Coming out of the summer of 2022, I was an active retiree, brimming with energy and good health—reaching out to international students at our local university, leading prayer and Bible studies, and welcoming family, neighbors and students for meals in our home.
During a family vacation to Florida that September, I fell on the beach and fractured my pelvis. Still recovering a month later, I limped into the hospital for urgent bladder cancer surgery. At home, complications from that surgery became severe, and I was readmitted to the hospital for a few miserable days.
When I was finally able to go home again, I was weak from blood loss and extended time in bed. I slowly recovered as Thanksgiving approached—only to be set back again when I had to have skin cancer removed from my scalp. Suddenly the prospect of a permanent bald spot on my head seemed worse than anything else!
After two months of healing without baldness or other mishaps, my husband and I celebrated my return to health with a cruise to Japan to visit our son in March 2023. On board the ship, I discovered one night that I couldn’t get up from the dinner table. My knee had begun to swell, and putting weight on it was unbearable. The ship’s doctor diagnosed a torn meniscus, and I ended up touring Tokyo in a wheelchair.
After a couple of weeks, I was able to walk with a cane, and the swelling subsided enough to resume normal life.
Despite many prayers, my knee swelled again six weeks later. After this cycle of swelling, treating the knee and recovering happened five times, orthopedists said the only solution was a total knee replacement.
Because I wanted to wait for a certain surgeon I trusted, my surgery was delayed until November. In the meantime, I spent most of my time in bed with my knee elevated and iced. At times I could resume life when the swelling went down.
As I waited for my November surgery, I had already experienced a full year of health setbacks, along with times of unbearable pain and emergency ambulance trips. Although usually optimistic, I feared I was sliding into a permanent health decline at age 73. Would I be able to serve others again? Or would I be sidelined into a life of disability punctuated by visits to specialists and physical therapists?
Just as I began to hope that knee surgery might put my fears to rest, my orthopedic surgeon warned me that, based on what he found when he opened up my knee, he might have to postpone full knee replacement until a second surgery. About this time, I was also due for a six-month cancer checkup. Since my type of tumor had a high recurrence rate, I faced the dreary possibility of up to three more surgeries. For the first time in my life, I just didn’t know if I could face any more.
No small wonder that my Bible study group was shocked that I saw God’s goodness in 2023!
I certainly wouldn’t have picked any of these health problems, let alone the toxic cocktail mix of all of them together! And yet … in every setback I had an uncanny sense of God’s continual presence.
A lifetime of learning God’s Word and experiencing His faithfulness had helped prepare me for very hard times. Though I still believed God loved me, I knew more than ever how weak and finite I was. At my lowest, God gave me grace to believe the truth of Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
I also saw God’s goodness through the prayers and practical help of family and friends. Although my husband Jim had never asked to be a nurse, he never complained about taking care of me. God also arranged for my son, who had worked overseas for several years, to live with us and help during several critical months. And my out-of-town daughter and granddaughter showed up at my worst moments.
I learned humility by accepting more help than I could repay. Neighbors, friends and students brought me meals, flowers, balloons and care boxes. One sweet Vietnamese couple, whom we had known as students, brought several homemade meals from out of town. My Nigerian student held my hand and prayed for me at the hospital and cooked for me after I returned home. Jim eventually had to tell our friends, “No more food! The refrigerator is full!”
God knew I needed to stay connected to Christian community, and in his goodness He provided. My neighborhood Bible study even met in my bedroom! I used Zoom for another Bible study and accessed online Sunday services. When I was able, Jim drove me to meetings and events.
God gave me one opportunity only possible by His supernatural timing. One of my international students living very far from home needed serious abdominal surgery. During an upswing in my knee cycle, I promised her I would care for her during recovery.
But as her surgery approached, my knee was swollen, and I feared I would fail her. Many prayed for us, and God intervened. My student’s two-week recovery at our home coincided exactly with two weeks between my recovery from one knee episode and the onset of another. God allowed me to be the nurse before I had to submit again to being nursed!
In one final way God showed His goodness. Though I faced the possibility of three more surgeries at the end of 2023, God allowed a gracious outcome. I only needed one surgery, resulting in a full knee replacement. And there was no recurrence of cancer at my six-month checkup.
I’m still regaining strength and endurance, and I don’t know what the future holds. Health is a gift, not a right, and I’m thankful for my health every day God gives it. And I have learned I don’t have to be afraid of the future, because the Lord of the universe holds me in His good and loving hand.
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