I am asking you to pray for Gary, Rosemary, Patti, Brandon, and Caci, part of the extended Fuller family in Athens, Michigan. Gary is my oldest brother, ten years older than me, and Rosemary is his wife. They had two sons. In 2008 they lost their oldest son (Terry) to cancer at 47 years of age. About 8 weeks ago they lost twin great grandchildren (Terry’s daughter, Jenny). Last Saturday evening Gary and Rosemary’s younger son, Ted, suddenly passed away at home with a heart attack – no warning signs. He was 50 years old. I married Ted and his wife, Patti, in the 1980’s. Their children, Brandon and Caci, both in their 20’s, live at home and love it there. Brandon worked directly with his dad in construction. Caci and her dad were best buddies. They are an unusually close knit family for the ages of the children still at home.

Linda and I got the news of Ted’s death as we walked into the Fuller Christmas in Athens at 6:00 p.m. It was to be the first old fashioned, “like it used to be” Fuller Christmas since 2008.

Ted was foreman on a construction crew and had last week just finished a high-stress, year-long project for the federal government. A salt-of-the-earth type man, he was trustee at the church I grew up in. As the neighborhood and family gathered on the lawn at Ted and Patti’s house Saturday evening, I went out to his shop. Caci and her friends had gathered there just to talk and had started a fire in the stove to stay warm. Ted had on the bulletin board over his work bench, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Gary, Rosemary, Patti, Brandon, and Caci will need the strength of Christ to get through this.

Sometimes it is impossible to figure out why things happen the way they do. What has happened to my brother and his family is one of the mysteries to be answered only in heaven.

Visitation is Thursday and the funeral is Friday. I have a part in it.