Later, after taking the girls home, Joey and Lance were invited once again to linger at the Cooper house for a while longer. Naturally, neither could refuse.

Joey joined Sheri on the old couch in the living room, where she snuggled with the stuffed giraffe he had given her. In an attempt at light talk, he said, “Still clinging to that big toy, I see, eh?”

“Obviously,” Sheri said with a grin. “I sleep with it every night and almost never let it get more than three feet away from me. It’s just so soft and squishy—and it carries such good memories of the zoo, too.”

“That was fun, huh?”

“The best fun I’ve ever had, thanks to you and Lance.” She leaned a little closer and he slid his arm across her bony shoulders. “I’m so glad you two come by and visit me whenever you can. You’re incredibly nice to do that.”

He squeezed her gently. “Think nothing of it, Sher. I always look forward to coming here and hanging with you.”

“Much as I love my mom and sister, I also love seeing different faces and hearing different voices. Oh, the people from hospice are always on hand, but it’s not quite the same.”

“Yeah, I can imagine.” At length, Joey added, “You’ve got a terrific family, Sheri. They easily rank among the best people I’ve ever known.”

“I think so, too. Oh, we have our moments, but what family doesn’t?” Sheri shook her head and lowered her voice. “I don’t know what I’d do or where I’d be without Mom and Tami…and I wouldn’t trade them for the world.”

“Tami’s come as a bit of a surprise to me. First time I saw her, I thought, ‘Whoa, here’s a girl you’d better not aggravate if you know what’s good for you!’”

Sheri laughed.

“But now I take that back. She’s a genuine sweetheart and I’m very fond of her.”

“She’s a sweetheart, all right, though you’d better keep your distance when she gets angry.” Sheri’s face and tone grew more solemn. “After I’m…you know, gone, will you help keep an eye on Tami? I know you’ve still got a life and I know you won’t always be around, especially after you regain your health. But will you at least keep some tabs on her? Mom, too?”

“Of course.” Joey was surprised and deeply impressed, not only at her concern for her family, but at how confident she sounded that his health would change for the better.

Stroking the downy fuzz of her giraffe’s neck, Sheri murmured, “I know this is hard for them both, so much more than they let on. At the restaurant today, I already knew what was wrong with Tami before she left the table. And I know Mom’s lost it plenty of times, too. No one has to tell me anything; the signs speak for themselves.”

Somehow, Joey summoned the nerve to ask, “How do you deal with it, Sheri?”

She lifted her eyes to his. “Me?”

“How can you face the end of your life like this? Surely you have your moments when you just lose it, too. Even when you don’t show it, surely you get sad and angry and bitter. Surely you hurt as much as anyone, if not the most.”

“Who wouldn’t? I’d say it’s impossible for anyone to get through something like this without some negative feeling.” Sheri sighed and shook her head. “Yeah, Joey…I do have my moments of anger, sadness, and bitterness. I do feel like I’m being cheated out of my life and everything I hold dear. More than once, I’ve asked God straight out, ‘Why are You doing this to me? Why are You letting this happen? Why me? Why now? Did I really do something so wrong to deserve a fate like this?’” 

After a long, anxious pause, Joey asked softly, “So, what then? How do you cope? How do you make it through one more day?”

Reaching for a thick book that lay on her other side, Sheri answered, “Whenever I’m finding myself on the edge of that black abyss, whenever I’m tempted to throw in the towel, to just curl into a little ball and let death take me, I resort to this. I consider it my lifeline.”

Joey recognized that book as the Holy Bible. It had a beautiful burgundy cover, with Sheri’s full name embossed in gold in the lower right corner.

“Didn’t you just finish it?” he asked.

“I did. And I still run through some of my favorite passages every day. I’ve read dozens of fantastic books, but this one beats them all out of the ballpark.” Sheri ran her palm lovingly over the sleek leather before cracking the book. Joey could tell from a glance that the thing had been put to excellent use. Almost every verse was underlined in a range of colors, and personal notes crammed the margins. Most of the pages had their upper tips folded over, too.

Joey’s throat tightened and his stomach lurched with the realization that he wasn’t as diligent with the Good Book these days as he ought to be. He could no longer recall when he had done an intimate reading that lasted beyond ten minutes.

As Sheri flicked the pages, she asked him, “Have you ever read the very last part, the Book of Revelation?”

“Bits and pieces of it,” he said with a little fidgeting. “Can’t say I found it particularly appealing, with all that talk of the end of the world, of war and destruction and the Final Judgment.”

“I used to view it that way, too,” she said gently. She paused, then went on, “Then I started reading the words more closely, digging much deeper into them and praying about them more seriously. Now whenever I read them, I understand what they’re really saying.” She sighed. “And, oh, what a beautiful message they deliver.”

“Message?” Joey almost couldn’t hear his own voice.

“A message of hope. A declaration of peace. A song of triumph. A solemn promise that, no matter how bad things are now or will ever be, God remains in total control, and in His due time, everything—everything—will turn out right.” She turned to the seventh chapter of Revelation, and she placed her fingertip on the seventeenth verse so that Joey could observe it, too. “Like this one here. ‘For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.’”

Joey’s heart skipped a beat. His breath caught. He remembered those words, if somewhat dimly—but now, in this fashion, it was like hearing them for the very first time.

Like magic, the words moved through him and stirred something inside him. If He had heard such words from God’s own lips, he didn’t see how the effect would be any different.

“When I go,” Sheri whispered, “I want this verse for my epitaph.”

“It would make for a beautiful epitaph,” was all Joey could say.

Again, Sheri shook her head. With a half-smile, she remarked, “That’s just the trouble with the world, isn’t it, Joey?”

“What?”

“If it doesn’t teach you to not believe in God, it teaches you to fear Him too much and trust Him too little. Knowing that God is aware of me and ready to welcome me home…that also helps me get by. Doesn’t mean I don’t hurt in the meantime, of course. Doesn’t mean I won’t miss my loved ones down here, either. But it’s easier to endure the bad when you have something good waiting for you at the other end.”