Lexington, KY - When Kay and Bud Stromberg and their children, Kristen and Scott, moved to Lexington, they became members of the parish where I had recently become rector. Kay informed me that they had been very active in their last church and planned to take a rest and avoid getting deeply involved in their new one.
Of course that didn't last long. The whole family entered wholeheartedly into the life of the church, and when they moved away years later we missed them a lot. Eventually they settled in Texas. Kay returned now and then to visit friends and we kept in touch. Five years ago we received word that on their 44th wedding anniversary Bud was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
"The next few weeks are a blur," Kay said, "MRIs, brain scans, a brain biopsy. The diagnosis was a malignant, fast growing, non-operable brain tumor."
Soon Bud became unsteady on his feet, confused and unable to stay home alone. Kay said they decided to try one round of radiation and then evaluate his condition at the end of the treatments.
On the last day of Bud's radiation, while getting into a car he fell and broke his ankle. After surgery he went to the Bishop Davies Nursing Center near their home for rehabilitation. "We soon became a part of the Bishop Davies family," Kay said. "I was there around eight to 10 hours a day and Bud was a cheerful patient at that time. We had wonderful care and the staff of the nursing home became our friends and our new family."
She said the broken ankle was "actually a godsend" because Bud had begun falling in the house, even with his walker, and it was becoming more and more difficult for Kay to help him up. Several times she had to go to neighbors for help.
"We are a faithful and praying family," Kay said. "From the beginning we prayed for and expected a miracle of healing for Bud. We were joined in prayer by our church family and friends all over the world. God always hears our prayers."
Kay was with Bud every day for the next 11 months at the center. As time went on he became progressively disoriented and uncommunicative, and eventually didn't speak at all.
Then early on the Friday after Thanksgiving Day, Kay was sitting at her kitchen table doing her morning devotion and paying bills when the phone rang. "A familiar voice at the other end of the line said, 'Where are you?'" Kay remembered. "Who is this?" she asked, and the other party exclaimed, "It's Bud."
In shock she said, "Bud Stromberg?" He laughed and she asked how he had dialed the phone, and Bud said their favorite aide had done it.
Kay asked to speak to the aide about the situation. The aide had come into Bud's room a few minutes earlier and Bud looked up and asked where Kay was. Kay hurried to the center and found "my old Bud" laughing and talking.
Bud remained in that condition and was able to come home for Christmas day to be with children and grandchildren. The little ones crawled over the wheelchair up into his lap and "he adored every minute of the day. We took pictures, ate our traditional meal, each of us spending time with Gramps. At the end of the day, Bud went back to Bishop Davies a happy, but exhausted man."
Shortly after Christmas he began slipping back into his former condition. Once he told Kay that their friend Joe, who died at Christmas time that year, was out in the rain in the parking lot and Kay should tell him to come in. "I began to realize that he was beginning to see the angels who were going to greet him in heaven."
Bud died on March 1. "I know Bud is waiting for us in paradise and enjoying the company of many of our family and friends. I am sometimes jealous," Kay said.
She added, "God did give us our miracle; the miracle of spending Christmas as a family one last time."