One September day two weeks before my mother died, I was sitting by her hospital bed holding her hand. Mama’s strength was failing, and her breathing had become extremely laborious, yet in those moments as she spoke, her eyes shone with a hope and joy that defied the suffering she was enduring. “Cheri, I have been praying for you and all my six children and twenty-two grandchildren for many years. But pretty soon I’m going to get to see Jesus face-to-face and get to talk to him about you all,” she