Susan LaffertyThis week I’ve walked on the soft, white sand of Pensacola Beach and stared out at the deep blue and aqua waters of the Gulf. I’ve relaxed, breathed in the ocean breezes. Watched sandpipers race the tide.
My first memory of feeling sand between my toes was a 1964 family vacation in Bali. We loaded up our 1958 Chevrolet station wagon in Surabaya early in the morning and drove across East Java to the ferry at Ketapang, just north of Banyuwangi.
“When I am afraid, I will trust in You, I will trust in You, I will trust in You….In God whose Word I praise.”
Steve Green’s “Hide ‘Em in Your Heart” recording of Scripture songs for children played often in our home. But this particular song was on repeat in my mind. On my lips.
Even after the kids were in bed fast asleep.
The lines were forming to board several Air Asia flights out of Penang. I asked the woman behind me if this was the line for Singapore. Yes. She was also going to Singapore. She asked which seat I was in. 18B. Her seat? 18A.
Once we boarded, I found out she was traveling to visit her brother and sister who are now Singaporean citizens. I was going there to overnight with our daughter before heading to the US.
In further conversation, we talked about the weather and she said, “I like cold weather.”
In this tropical country? “Where do you go for cold weather?”
“London,” she said and shared that her other sister had lived there until her sudden death from cancer the year before. I told her I was sad to hear of her loss.
