Description
Joann’s Cancer
In August 1998, Joann was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer. She was given 3-5 years to live. After surgery and nine rounds of chemotherapy she was sure she had beaten it. But, fifteen months later it was back and worse. Another surgery and six more rounds of chemo. Her hair fell out again.
But this time it didn’t work, so her doctors sent her to Houston for additional help. She was told to go home and live out what little time she had left, there wasn’t anything they could do. With six children, nine grandchildren, and a son serving as a missionary, she felt her work was not yet done. She wanted to live, but her faith and will to fight were weakening. She wondered if God was hearing her prayers at all.
Then one morning she received a phone call. The caller was a man she knew but had never met. He said:
“I’ve heard that you have cancer and that you are having a few struggles, and I just wanted to talk with you. Is that okay?”
He shared some of his own experiences with that terrible illness and several powerful verses of scripture. He was so kind. As she spoke with him, she said it “felt as though the Lord was on the telephone [with] me.”
When he asked if he and others could offer special prayers for her, she could hardly answer, so deeply was she touched. He told her:
“We are going that your doctors will be blessed and know the best treatment for you.”
Joann was renewed in spirit and fought on.
The caller that day was Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
That cancer claimed Elder Maxwell on July 21, 2004.
Then on September 29, 2004, Joann too was released from her mortal struggles.
The power of this story is not in that they died or how they died but in how they lived—their sanctifying struggle against pain. Both lived lives of love.
Joann’s family wrote the following of her:
“She strengthened others and even at her lowest moments, greeted others with the warmth of her smile and a genuine cheerfulness that exemplified her trust in God. She knew He would heal her if it was His plan, and trusted in His wisdom if he did not. While sick with cancer, she spent countless hours sewing quilts and blankets for each one of her ten grandchildren. She had decided that if she was to die, she wanted to leave a legacy of love to her grandchildren to remember her by. Now, each grandchild has at least one beautiful quilt made especially for him or her by “Mama Jo”. She did all she could to fight to the end, and accomplished more in her six cancer-stricken years than many do in a lifetime.”
It is sure and certain that your mortal life will not go exactly as you hope and plan, but it is also sure and certain that in the Lord Jesus Christ your eternal life can turn out exactly as you plan. The only happy certainty in time and eternity is Him. Come Unto Christ—now!
Sources:
From personal correspondence with Joann Cowart of Spokane Washington, October 2003
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_A._Maxwell
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/tribnet/name/joann-cowart-obituary?id=19606649
