Service Information and a Reflection from daughter Suzanne

We know many of you have been wondering about service information for our mom.

Visitation:

Ottawa Funeral Home

1111 La Salle St, Ottawa, IL

Friday, January 31, 4 pm - 8 pm

Funeral:

Fox River Lutheran Church

2785 U.S. 52, Sheridan, IL

Saturday, February 1, 10:30 am

Here's a link to her Memorial Page...In Memory of Mary Provance.

The past week has been incredibly hard on all of us.  We had to watch her health decline and say goodbye to our Mom here on earth.  We are so thankful she went to be with the Lord yesterday evening and that the burden of her struggles here would be no more.  Praise God for that!  She's taught each one of us SO much throughout our lives...how to love others, what it looks like to serve, how to be there for our children, when to stand up for what we know is true, how to support our spouses, how to not worry about what life may bring but instead to relax and have fun.  The past 5 years she's taught us how to persevere through life's most difficult trials.  She looked death in the face multiple times throughout that time and said she wasn't ready to give up.  She beat every odd placed before her.  She baffled doctors with her strength.  We will all be forever changed and better because of her life.  

I will miss her, dearly, everyday for the rest of my life.  For MANY reasons, but particularly how I could talk to her about anything and everything and she would listen so intently.  She knew how to make her family and friends feel like the most important person in the world while she'd listen about anything and share her thoughts.  Throughout the years ahead, I pray God will remind each one of us to be a friend like she was...to put others first and to love deeply.

Finally, I am strengthened through the promise God has offered to us through His word.  This is part of an article by Jack Kelly that has given me such hope in this most difficult time.

"...for a believer, death is the ultimate healing. Death brings the life we were always intended to live, and would already be living if not for our sin nature. For the “dead” believer, all of this life’s problems, pains, and sorrows are over and a glorious eternal life of blessing and abundance awaits.

The more we know about the life after death the less we cling to the life before. And since only God knows the end from the beginning, only He can know the pain and suffering He’s prevented in calling someone home early. The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.(Isaiah 57:1)"

FULL ARTICLE