Our Guiding Light | In Sharon’s Name
As Sharon’s husband, confident and partner, I bore witness to a level of courage and fighting spirit above and beyond any I had ever seen – every second of that three-year battle that she waged with her cancer, her sheer force of will, body and soul, to be all there for us, for me, for our three young daughters, (the 3M’s) for her family and for her friends, to prepare us, to deliver us.
In that manner, she ministered me. And I am stronger for it, strength dwarfed in comparison to hers, as she was more my caregiver over those final years than I was hers, so that I would be more fit to carry on alone, in service to Family – not just our immediate family but Family the Universal. For in that resides the essence of our shared faith and our love for one another. Love eternal.
They say everyone deals with personal tragedy differently. There’s no one right way to grieve. For me it involved dealing with mundane matters, chores, putting affairs in order, going through boxes, organizing and sorting. Which distracts you as you sit with this loneliness. This emptiness.
And sometimes you find something. An unfinished thread. An unexpected clue. And it redeems and rescues you so you get yourself back for a moment and find or are reminded of the path forward laid out for you years before.
So I’m going through files. And this unopened envelope drops loose and lands on the floor. I retrieve it and find within it this voucher, a confirmation of a donation she made in her last months for putting up shelter for orphans in Cambodia.
This had always been a cause that both of us were drawn to, saving our most vulnerable children, orphans in peril. And we both knew the Cambodian culture to some extent and had connections there – a region where this pre-existing condition is rampant. So the idea was start with what you know, learn more and let it grow. But Sharon was the catalyst.
Unfortunately, commitment to this effort, among many other worthwhile causes our families had been involved with, were put on hold, all of us consumed with Sharon’s illness. All of us accept Sharon, as it turned out, who put her stake in the ground first and made it real in her final days for the rest of us.
It was at that moment, after her passing, through that voucher, that I found hope and purpose again which I am confident was her plan all along.
So we carry on my Sharon. Supporting meaningful programs through MERCY Worldwide and other worthy charities dedicated to creating safe havens, learning centers, adoption services and pathways to stability and to lives of joy and meaning to our most vulnerable children in trouble spots around the world, and through our own efforts here at home.
In your name. For their sake.
It’s why I’m still here. To oversea the fulfillment of your dream. That I know.
Dennis Wong, Founder
Wong Family Foundation