Letter From Whitney's Mother

by breakfast of champions 45 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  breakfast of champions

  Just saw this on Google News. Link to letter here.

  Dear family, I want to tell you that although this has been the worst of my life’s tribulations, that I am still standing.

  The obvious reason is that Jehovah is the faithful “keeper of Promises” holding to his word that never, would his great love allow his precious children to be tested beyond what we could bear. That he would empower us with abundant strength as long as we hold loyally to him.

  I have not lost my daughter Whitney and you have not lost a sister. I know exactly where she is. That girl loves to sleep and she is taking a bit of a nap right now, held tightly in Jehovah’s memory. What a cozy place to be.

  My family has been told that many are crushed with sadness for us. Don’t be overcome with grief. As difficult as this has been, a tremendous opportunity has opened up because people in communities around the earth have opened their hearts wide to learning more about us as a people and the God whose name we carry. Because of the experiences I have recently witnessed or someone has shared, this ordeal has greatly impacted the minds and hearts of really good, compassionate and loving people. I promise you that if Jehovah told me that he would end this cruel system immediately so that I could hold Whitney safe and warm in my arms, see those shining eyes and her radiant smile tomorrow, I promise you… that I would beg him to wait so that we would have the time to reach out to those people. We could not rescue Whitney but we can rescue them. Jehovah knows what he is doing.

  This mother does not have the words to express the gratitude she has for the millions of prayers that have flowed to Jehovah for my family nor the countless tears that have fallen for the sorrow that visited our lives. And while many of you have not been able to be present with us in a literal sense, I have known you were there with every breath that I have taken. Hugs do travel through the air on wings of angels and although there was a horrific hole cut from my heart, I have been squeezed so tightly with your love that it has already closed enough to let me breathe, witness to others and even to laugh out loud. My prayers include you and I needed to reassure you that my family and I are not just standing we are standing stronger than ever.

  Beautiful Whitney beat us to Paradise.

  I love you, I love you,

  Your sis Lorilei
• 

  Magwitch

  Heartbreaking!

  There are five stages to grief - she is obviously in the first stage- Denial.
• 

  ohiocowboy

  I am happy that her Mother's strong faith will help carry her through this horrible ordeal. On the flip side, it will come as quite a blow if she ever does decide to start questioning the "Truth".

  My thoughts are with Whitney's friends and family.
• 

  sabastious

  It's good to know that she's feeling so strong. No one should ever have to go through what she is experiencing. That being said, this tragedy seems like it was avoidable. If Lorilei's subconscious is even aware of a shred of that, her cognitive dissonance will be going full bore.

  -Sab
• 

  JW GoneBad

  With all due respect to the family and Whitney’s mother: Her reasoning is no different than what others say when their loved one dies prematurely …’God took her cause he needed her in heaven’.

  I, for Whitney’s mother’s sake hope that the killer ‘Holt’ doesn’t wind up being a sexual predator or stalker that WT and the elders in her congregation knew about but refused and or neglected to inform the rank and file about.

  Indeed, a sad event with a sad ending!
• 

  minimus

  Well, no one should consider this a "loss". OK.
• 

  JW GoneBad

  Clearly, the JW religion is like opium to Whitney’s mom.
• 

  LongHairGal

  Breakfast of Champions:

  With all due respect to a grieving mother: I am sure there wasn't a dry eye reading it but all it shows is that people in the religion have short-circuited their grief somehow and have substituted this fantasy to make themselves feel better. I never really believed the JW teaching about the paradise and felt it was no comfort to anybody who lost a loved one. Who wants to wait forever to see somebody again?

  The problem is that a person has to grieve and if it is postponed or suppressed, it is unhealthy. A real loss has occurred. Somebody is gone and you have to wait on some never-never land fantasy in order to supposedly see them again.

  JWGoneBad:

  I feel the way you do in that it is similar to those in Christendom who say: God needed so and so in heaven. I think the JW hope is the same as Christendom's hope for the hereafter.

  The only difference is that Christendom's hereafter is in heaven and JW's is supposedly on earth (this is assuming, of course, that the JW religion doesn't do a 360 degree turn and say 'we no longer believe that'). Stay tuned.
• 

  nuthouse escapee

  I feel very sorry for Whitney's mother. The shock that comes from a horrible tragedy like this can numb the emotions for a time. I experienced the same thing when my mother passed. It is a crutch that interrupts the grieving process and it eventually catches up with you later. As another poster mentioned, it is not healthy. -Leslie-
• 

  Juan Viejo2

  I wonder if the brother giving the funeral talk at Whitney's memorial service will give her more than the three minutes every other JW gets when they die?

  I wonder how her mother, father, husband, and siblings will feel when they hear the same old standard "sell-the-crowd-on-paradise" talk that you hear at JW funerals.

  It does appear that besides the usual service, the family (or "friends of") are planning a private memorial for closer friends and relatives.

  JV