Quote from Forum Archives on October 28, 2003, 11:13 am

Posted by: mmiller <mmiller@...>

Had to share this one- this is for anyone "feeling their age" right now or
is having a bad day.

I have a congregant at my church who is a nurse who provides home care for
terminally ill patients who are nearing the end. (I wrote about her a while
back- her name is Monique, and she has given her life to Christ as a result
of attending our church.) About a month ago, Monique approached our pastor
about doing a recording for one of her patients- a man who has spent his
entire life playing piano and wanted to leave a legacy for his children and
(get this) wanted to perform the music for his own funeral. Our pastor
then asked our music director, Don Garberg and myself if we would handle
this, and we happily did so. Last evening, after a particularly difficult
day at work, Don and I went to Tillman's house to record him. Neither Don
nor I had met Tillman (or his wife, Lydia) and really didn't know what to
expect. All we know is that Tillman has a very short time left, but we
didn't know what his status with the Lord was or how long he would be able
to play since he is very, very sick.

Tillman ended up being a man in his late 60's, who is dying from brain
cancer. He only has a few weeks left to live. He was obviously very ill,
but what really took Don and I back was that Tillman and his wife are devout
Christians, and the most important thing to him was that the music he leaves
be a tribute to his love of Jesus, and that he wants to show that love to
the world and have that be the last thing that people see from him. The
music he wanted to record were things like "Blessed Be The Tie That Binds"
and some other old hymns that I had forgotten about since hearing them in my
childhood.

Anything I write about the recording won't really give you sense of how
difficult this was. Tillman would make mention of where he wanted the songs
played during his funeral service, and he and his wife prayed before we
started recording- to say it was an emotional evening would be a vast
understatement.

All I can say is that Tillman and Lydia really touched me, and made me
realize a little more about what's really important in life. PLEASE pray
for Tillman and his wife as he prepares to go home. He is very much at
peace with this- I can only hope and pray that I will be that centered when
my time comes. From time to time, I will update you guys on what is
happening with him and I'll let you guys know when he goes home.

-Marc