Bittersweet
Today is bittersweet for the Vecchione clan. Nonna is being released from the hospital after surviving several life scares last week -- the good news. But she returns home with a pancreatic cancer diagnosis and the textbook prognosis of 0-6 months to live. The impact of the news gripped me last Thursday. Hearing the MercyMe song "I Can only Imagine" at a highway rest stop of all places, I was inspired to play it in my car. Those lyrics at this time made me all weepy.
It's not that Nonna isn't prepared to go. She's lived a remarkably full life, was vibrant and healthy past her eightieth birthday, and loves God passionately. Still the news is sudden, and the deterioration in the last two weeks has been so rapid. Plus, for me, she's one of the few living links to my own grandparents. Both of my mom's parents, Simon and Helen Vikse, died when I was very young. My grandmother passed away on a day she was supposed to babysit me. In fact, my understanding is she was returning home from buying me Dunkin Donuts when she pulled the car over before suffering a fatal stroke. I answered the knock on the door when the police officer came to deliver the news to my uncle. My grandfather passed on shortly after my fifth birthday, so I have just a few memories of him. But Nonna helped keep those memories vivid, not just because of her age, or the fact that she knew them. What made their relationship so special is the fact that my grandfather introduced Nonna and her descendants, one of whom I married, to Christ. In the early seventies, before the era of televangelists, Simon Vikse was one of a group of Full Gospel Business Men who sponsored what was, at the time, a radically progressive form of outreach -- an evangelistic television show that aired at midnight on Saturdays. Among the regular viewers was a disillusioned Brooklyn matriarch. After watching religiously for several weeks, Giovanina finally called the number at the bottom of the screen. The prayer counselor who answered the phone was Simon Vikse. He referred her to a church in her neighborhood, but when she realized he lived in the city, she only wanted to go to his church. She attended the following Sunday with her three daughters, including my future mother-in-law, and all four received Jesus that afternoon. For nearly a decade Simon discipled Jennie and her husband Richard, who received Jesus a few months after his wife. While we're praying for a miracle, it seems likely that Jennie will be reunited with her husband and my grandparents very soon. "Surrounded by His glory ... I can only imagine ..."Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all I can only imagine ...
posted by Jeremy Del Rio @ 4/18/2005 09:03:00 AM
2 Comments:
When my father in law passed away in 2003, we used that exact same song during the service. I can still see the pictures of him with my kids while that song plays...
"Surrounded by His glory" so true, yet so difficult
Every so often someone's name pops into my head from my past and I google them. Today it was the Vikse family from Staten Island. I stumbled on your blog. I too have many memories of your grandparents Helen and Simon Vikse. It was Simon who at a FGBMFI meeting in Manhattan prayed for a 13 year old kid to receive the Holy Spirit.
My parents knew them quite well from the connections of Salem Gospel in Brooklyn. I went to camp with Phyllis and Arlene and am a bit older that Don (I'm guess he doesn't care for Donnie any more).
I have very fond memories of your family - thanks for the peak into your life through this blog.
BTW, my name then was Johannesen - Joyce Johannesen -
I've blogged a bit about Brooklyn at times on my blog http://ageofhopeministries.blogspot.com
God Bless...
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