—RETHINKING POSSIBLE—
THE DAY LOVE
let go
Rebecca Faye Smith Galli’s memoir, Rethinking Possible, tells of her life built on the solid foundation of a 1960s pastor’s family. Her journey pens the resilience it took to pass through trials and devastation and find the strength to press through. The cycle began when her brother’s tragic death preceded her son’s degenerative disease diagnosis and subsequent death; her daughter’s autism diagnosis; her divorce; and finally, reverse myelitis that left Becky paralyzed from the waist down The story that follows is just the beginning of Rebecca’s journey through one of the darkest periods in her family. The water skiing accident that took 17-year-old brother away also took away the focused love her father who once soulfully invested in his family. JANUARY 14, 1979—It was four months after Forest’s funeral that Dad preached his first sermon in Huntington, North Carolina.
Snow prevented Mom and Rachel from traveling to Huntington. I was at UNC beginning my second semester. Once more, Dad was in the pulpit, sharing his message. But this time there was no family to be found. Dad mailed me a cassette tape of his sermon. I pressed play on my Sony Walkman and snuggled down into my bed covers one Sunday morning to listen. “Why stand I here?” he thundered to the congregation. “Because it feels right, yes, it feels right. Even with the obvious strains and drawbacks I’m going to be under, it still feels right.” He paused and I could hear the drama build in the silence. “With me in Huntington and my daughters and wife in North Carolina and our only son in heaven, it still feels right.” I winced and paused the recording, his words opening up fresh pain. We were so scattered, so different, so not who we used to be. I couldn’t bear to hear it. I took the headphones off and gently wrapped its cord around the player, tucking my father’s words and message into my nightstand drawer. Dad. How did he do it? That “feeling right” must
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