Life and Death

My favorite photo of the Coker boys: Thomas, Bill, and John — Terre Haute, IN — 2006

We got the call after supper last night. Bill’s older brother Thomas died around 4 p.m. California time. He had spent almost two weeks in the hospital due to complications with his lungs, progressing to his heart, bowels, and kidneys. Dismissed to his home with Hospice care, he prepared to die. His wife and two daughters gathered and kept watch. Until the night before his death his mind was good, talking and relating to his family. Listening to music (so much a part of his life), Thomas passed quietly from this world into the next. He was 89 years old, living the longest of any of his family. He was the eldest of four children of Tom and Wilmoth Coker.

Sister (Mary Elizabeth) died first in Texas at age 47 from a heart attack. Then Dad Coker died in Mississippi at age 79, followed by Mom at age 78 at our home in Kentucky. Bill’s younger brother John Calvin died in Louisiana at age 75, kidney failure due to diabetes.

Bill is now the only survivor of the Tom and Wilmoth (Billie) Coker clan, their third child. He is 82 years old as of June and with no siblings. Nothing, not even death, “will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).

A note of thanksgiving: I thank God for the Coker heritage, the faith of over three generations, and I celebrate their love for God and family. I have been blessed to be part of the Coker family and enjoy this godly heritage. And I am grateful for my three siblings, all living (in three different states).