Missing

I have most notably been missing for quite some time. We suffered a loss in the family and I had to take time for that. Then my mother decided we would go on our annual trip to Branson, however glum we may be.

On Sunday November 5, 2006 Dr. William Mitchell “Mitch” Murphy passed away. It has caused a gaping hole in our lives that no one will be able to fill. Mitch has been a large part of our family for many years. He was an elder at our church, an educator, a friend and great support system. In 1995 he became an official member of our family when his daughter Amy married my brother Scott.

Mitch was always there when anyone needed someone to lean on. Despite battling cancer for over 10 years, enduring chronic pain he still managed to never show a single ounce of that pain and he never once let it inhibit his working life.

Mitch wrote articles for not only our church bulletin but for Christian monthly’s across the country. He filled in at the pulpit when the need was there. He worked with the Churches of Christ food pantry. He worked with the prison ministry and developed a program for incarcerated parents to be able to record stories read for their children. The day he died Mitch was at the prison. He had concluded services and singing and was finishing out his day when he had chest pain and collapsed.

The miracle patient who survived the ravages of cancer, in spite of the dire predictions that first he’d be dead within the year of the first diagnosis, to the prediction of death in a month with the second diagnosis (and lived an additional five years to the doctor’s shock and amazement) succumbed to a heart attack.

He leaves behind his family, wife, mother, brothers, sisters, daughters, sons-in-law, nephews, cousins and grandchildren as well as a host of friends and extended family. There will never be another Mitch Murphy and the space he’s left in our lives will never fill. However, Mitch would not be happy for our grieving his death. He was a God fearing man, a disciple of Christ, a loving, gentle guiding hand. His body had endured pain that no one should endure and he survived. He must’ve completed his destined tasks or else God would have left this great man here.

In our lives his presence will be deeply missed. Mitch is gone from our lives, but never from our hearts.

I have to go but I’ll return again soon, I hope!

Huggles,
Donica Covey