🇬🇧Shelagh Trustram

Before I start, I want to say how happy I am to see your faces. I haven't seen you for a long time, and when I see your faces, I see the face of God.

John and I moved to Lincoln in 2007, eight years ago, to be closer to family. My family was expanding, and we'd been working at the national level for years. John felt it was time to focus on home. We moved with every intention of coming back for events and the annual gathering — but somehow it never quite happened.

Different things kept getting in the way, mostly our health. I've had four knee replacements on my right knee. It must be because my name begins with a W — they must give the oldest models to people whose names begin with W. The first three were pretty useless. Finally, I found a kind surgeon who got it right on the fourth try, so I'm trusting him to do the other leg.

Every year there was something. John had two strokes, one year and then the next, so we couldn't come either of those years. Just as we thought the pattern was about to change, John was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Sometimes bad things happen. I've always taken the view that, as we're the only ones in our family following True Parents, naturally we have to pay the price for that. From that perspective, harsh circumstances always became a blessing, and we were happy to walk that path.

John had an operation to remove his stomach, and he had great hope it would be a good outcome. The week before the surgery — Franklin may have already told a few people this joke — John, being Johnny, had a wickedly humorous side. I'd given him a flying lesson for his birthday, so I said, "you'd better take that lesson now." The week before the operation he had it, and he said to the instructor: "I'm having my flying lesson now, because next week I won't have the stomach for it." That was John.

He took it all in his stride, and we really thought he was going to recover well. After a few months, it appeared that wasn't to be. His cancer came back, and we were told he only had a few months. So that became a time to gather everyone together — to really use it as a witness. You can witness to your life, but you can also witness to your death, because death is not the end.