The Pinnix Family

Dear Friends,

Dad’s Graduation to Glory

First I want to apologize for not sending our newsletter yet for last quarter. It is sitting at home, ready to print and send once the pictures are ordered. We don’t like to send the electronic version out until we deliver the hard copies to the post office. We will still send it, but it may be another couple of weeks.

My Dad fell a couple of weeks ago and broke his hip. He had a successful surgery and when I made it here (NC) over a week ago, he was back at the nursing facility and seemed to be doing okay. I had a visit with him last Sunday but he just slept but seemed comfortable. Then Monday, he was awake and somewhat alert and we had a very short but good visit before he fell asleep. Then Tuesday the 18th, I was at mom’s apartment just down the hall from dad’s room and a nurse came to inform us that when they brought his lunch, he had passed away.

That’s not all. On Thursday evening after dad’s passing we were making plans to go to the funeral home the next day and a nurse came to test my mom for COVID. It was positive! That meant she had to isolate for 5 days. Thankfully, my mom has had almost no issues with the virus! We are able to head to the funeral home tomorrow and make arrangements.

I personally had a TERRIBLE time getting to NC. When I heard the news of the hip fracture, the cost of flying down at that time was over $2,000 for one of the few options. Since I already had purchased tickets for Joshua and I to go to Oklahoma for a conference, I decided to rent a car and drive to NC over two days from there. Well, each evening when I tried to sleep I had horrendous muscle spasms in both legs from being in a small car all day. I ended up in the ER until 3am both nights. To top all that off, I had 5 migraines over two days. I went to the ER for THAT, on Friday. I have finally slept well since then and have felt well enough today to try and catch up on things.

I hate I didn’t tell you sooner, but in addition to the above, it took a few days to get out of that tiny rental car and into a full size van, fly the rest of my family down, deal with someone who sideswiped us on the interstate, get dad’s room cleaned out, and find a furnished house to rent for 10 days before flying back to Alaska. And these southerners have not dealt real well with the three snowfalls! There’s other things too, but I have complained enough.

Let me close with this thought. The Lord has been good. He has loaded me with “amazing grace” and that’s why I’m still plugging away. Please pray that we will have wisdom getting all of this done and getting the family back to Alaska. Be in prayer also for my mom. I think tomorrow will be a real challenge for both of us. I think she wants me to preach and the kids to sing at Dad’s funeral service that may take place later this week. May HE be glorified.