Remembering Gertrude

I met Gertrude for the first time last year in a corrugated little shack. It was a warm day in July but she was bundled up in an oversized coat as if to keep the cold and the harsh reality of life out.

Her cough echoed against the tin walls. She had a dead surrendered look in her eyes, staring off in to the not-so-far distance. I could almost see the reel of life playing out in front of her: mother dead, father left, 2 kids to care for that aren’t hers to care for, but they are. Sick, deathly sick. No food, no income, not wanted by anyone.

As she opened up to share her story with us, her eyes began to quiver, and soon her hand was shaking, wiping the tears from her face. Her story was just as I thought. I wish it hadn’t been. I wish that Gertrude had a different story.

Her wails to God still echo in my mind.

I had never been in the presence of such honesty, such genuine humanity, grief and pain, dependence and faith mixed together. That day I felt God’s heart break.

The last time I visited Gertrude, she was staying with her sick Grandmother. Adolescent girls and babies floated in and out of the dark hall through our meeting. Distressed, she and her grandmother cried out together to their God, first using words, then just sobs and wails. There was an eerie stillness in the air as they tried to compose themselves before we left.

Gertrude died a year later in the same week as her grandmother. Together they left Gertrude’s 2 brothers, 14 and 17, and 16 year old sister with a baby of her own, a handful of young cousins, 5 children under the age 2 and a deathly ill aunt—the only adult left in Gertrude’s grandmother’s house.

I believe that God’s heart was in pain as She watched Her child suffer. I believe that there was a sweet reunion the day that Gertrude passed in to the next life. I believe that even through the pain there was purpose in Gertrude’s short life. I believe God has a redemptive plan for this earth and that it begins with you and me. She made us in Her image, creators, like Her. She desires for us to make this world a more loving, more compassionate place for saints like Gertrude, and for people like you and me who easily loose their way and quickly default to our selfish ways. I have to believe for my friends, I believe for Gertrude.

Video with Gertrude

Song for Gertrude