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Amy’s Journey Amy Nicholls 25th January 1989 – 9th February 2009 One very special girl Everyone is important and everyone is loved by God,
but there are some people who make such an impression on our lives, that no
matter if we have them around us for a short or a long time, they impact us
in such a way that we will never be the same again. Amy Nicholls was one of those people.
Amy began her journey with cancer back in 2007, and
she began a blog (if any of you
haven’t yet read it and would like to follow her diary.) Her first entry was called “Cancer is like a
box of chocolates” and contains the lines “You have the chocolates you like
and the chocolates you hate. On a good
day it’s as if you’ve picked a good chocolate, on a bad day, a bad chocolate. The only thing is that the chocolates are
disguised in colourful wrappers, wrappers that represent life, represent the
day that has started. You don’t know
if it’s a bad chocolate or a good chocolate until you unwrap it.” Amy spent the remaining time she had on this earth
unwrapping the days one by one and along the way, she touched the lives of so
many people, through her Blog, through the way she was with all the many care
professionals with whom she came into contact, through the way she acted with
and around her many friends, with the way she grew her faith quietly, then
announced it to the world at her baptism. The amount of stories that are coming in relating to
the way Amy touched people’s lives is simply a testimony to her and the way
she allowed God to use her to reach others.
Her testimony - reproduced from her baptism in last month’s Bethel Mag
- has gone all over the place - to Churches up and down this country through
Bethel contacts who have asked if they can reproduce her words in their own
Church’s magazines. How many people
have read of her faith and her encouragement to others to put their faith in
Christ we will never know this side of heaven. What we do know is that Amy will bring more people
to faith through her dying than ever she would have through her life. (That’s a quote from God.) While that doesn’t help us at all with the
loss of not having her around in the way that she was, it might help a little
bit when things are not quite so raw, in being so very thankful to God for
Him allowing us to have had the privilege of knowing her and having her in
our lives. Amy’s last Blog, posted on Sunday February 1st, was called “What to hold on for now”, and
it’s reproduced here: “People said I
seemed well at Christmas and then again at my baptism a few weeks later. Was I well?
Not really, but I guess I felt it at the time. I know since then I’ve got a lot, lot
worse. My breathing is my slow killer
and it doesn’t seem to be letting up any time soon. One person in my Church got upset the other
week as they thought me being dunked when I had my baptism had been the cause
of my rapid deterioration…it really wasn’t.
I think since the news of me not being around much longer started,
there were certain things, not really made public, that I knew in my mind I
really wanted to try and be around for.
Two of the more recent events were those mentioned above...Christmas
and my baptism. I think that’s why
I’ve got worse since then, I haven’t really got any more things, planned or
unplanned, to really focus on. Sure,
everyday I should focus on, but it’s not the same. I recently got to my 20th birthday. I wanted to make it to there and I achieved
that. I knew I wouldn’t make the
milestone that is 21 but to me, 20 has been a bigger milestone than any that
have passed or will have done. I made
it, and for that I couldn’t be happier.”
Amy skateboarded into heaven on Monday February
9th. Her funeral service at Bethel and
the following service at Stourbridge Crematorium, followed in later days by
the Tree Planting at Little Lambs and Ashes Scattering, were packed with
people, with love, with thankfulness and with emotion. Wow, what a privilege to have known
her. Good night Amy, see you in the morning xxx |
