When we step back to look at our lives and see how often God has graced us with his love, it is overwhelming. Time and time again, he places people in our path to better know and love him and to help us accomplish the things he has in mind for us.
One such person for me was Carol Susan Roth. Through God’s grace, our paths crossed just as I wondered how in the world to have a book published. Carol was one of the first people who said she understood my writing well and felt it had value. “This is more than storytelling,” she said to me one day. “These stories teach us much about living and dying.” She worked tirelessly on my behalf and enthusiastically represented me in every possible way.
Carol had only been married for a short time when multiple brain tumors changed her life forever. She was determined to live every day to the fullest until there were no more tomorrows left to her. Her background was Jewish, with lots of other spirituals leanings, and she came to rely on Catholic Masses and prayers said for her the way a thirsty child relies on mother’s milk. She was open, loving, faithful and totally unselfish until the end. She gave her all to the authors she represented and never held back.
I had planned to visit her in California following a vacation with my husband. I spoke with her by phone, thanking her for all she had done for me, and talking about finally meeting face to face for the first time the following week. It was not to be.
In our last conversation Carol said she felt destined to represent me with both Glimpses of Heaven and More Glimpses of Heaven, and that she’d come to new and deeper insights of God. “I have come to know God in a way I never understood him before,” she said to me that night.
She was at peace with both her life and death and although she did not want to leave her loving husband and family, she accepted God’s path for her. She was a loving and trusted friend and I thank God often that he allowed us to share the journey together.
Please join Trudy for a Magnificat Prayer Breakfast at the Church of Holy Apostles in McHenry, Illinois, on December 8. Tickets are $15 and available for purchase in advance; click here for more information.
