On Oct. 15, 2005, Lisa Reeves’ children surprised her with a trip to Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area. “I didn’t know it at the time, but this would be my last birthday we had together,” Lisa says. Pictured (l-r) are: Nick, Megan, Lisa, daughter-in-law Shannon, and Jacob Reeves. If there ever was someone who might be justifiably angry with God, Lisa Reeves is that person. However, despite enduring an almost unbearable loss and numerous health trials in her family over the last 15 months, she believes her faith is now stronger than ever.

Lisa's nightmare summer began in June 2006 when her then-19-year-old son Nick Reeves started feeling sick. The young man's discomfort, which at first seemed like a virus-like illness, turned out to be a serious heart attack that has left Nick in need of a heart transplant.

"Nick's heart attack damaged the muscle on the whole left side of his heart," explains Lisa, who is director of parish ministries at St. Peter Parish in Petersburg and Holy Family Parish in Athens.

Just over a month after Nick's health problems began, Lisa's 22-year-old daughter Megan Reeves unexpectedly collapsed and passed away on July 15. The young woman and her fiancé had been boating on the river near Beardstown on one of the hottest days in 2006. Lisa believes the heat contributed to Megan's death.

"Megan was diagnosed with acid reflux when she was 14. She had chest pains all the time and we thought it was acid reflux. I think there was a heart condition there and being out in the heat, she was dehydrated. I think that is why we lost her," Lisa says. "When Nick had his heart attack, they thought it was a virus so they didn't think there was any need to check the other two kids."

When Megan died, Nick's physicians at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, where he had been transferred from Springfield, suggested an autopsy to focus on her heart. Unfortunately, the autopsy was inconclusive. "We know it was her heart, but we will never know for sure exactly what happened to Megan," Lisa says.

In August, Lisa's oldest son, Jacob Reeves, who was 25, had a mild heart attack. "He has scar tissue around his electrical impulses, and that runs in my side of the family, so he has a pacemaker," Lisa explains. "Nick has a defibrillator."

Leo and Shirley Stewart, members of St. Peter Parish, Petersburg, spend a Sunday afternoon painting Nick’s bedroom. Through all this pain and anxiety, Lisa says she is immensely thankful for the help she has been receiving from several priests and friends at her parishes and at the Catholic Pastoral Center in Springfield.

"When Nick was so sick (and the family was preparing to move him to St. Louis) I was desperate to have him anointed. I called Vicki Compton (in the diocesan Office for the Missions) to ask her to help me find a priest. By the time I got back to the hospital, Msgr. (John) Ossola had been there and Msgr. (David) Lantz was there. Vicki was there. Carol Muller (also a member of the diocesan curia and a parishioner at St. Peter's) was there," she remembers.

Over the last 15 months Lisa has also relied heavily on the help of her pastor Father Donald Knuffman "who has been a saint through all of this" and her former pastor, Vicar General Msgr. Carl Kemme.

"A lot of people wonder why Nick survived. When he was on that helicopter they didn't know if he was going to make it to Barnes," Lisa says. "I truly believe it is because I had him anointed."

Nick also suffered several other serious setbacks at Barnes that Lisa believes really should have taken her son, including a crisis with a tandem heart machine when he lost "units upon units of blood," followed by a toxic reaction. Still he survived. "I remember at one point a nurse came to me and said, ‘I hope you believe in God because that is the only way he will make it.'"

Just before Megan's passing, Nick was finally moved out of the Intensive Care Unit at Barnes. However, because of her travels back and forth from Springfield to St. Louis and her work in Petersburg, Lisa says she nearly passed up on what turned out to be her final visits with her daughter, who lived in Beardstown.

"I remember I was at work and I had been at St. Louis all weekend with Nick. A woman from our parish had made Megan a small cake to try because she was going to make it for her wedding (that was scheduled for Sept. 9, 2006). At first I thought, ‘Oh, maybe I should just put it in the freezer and give it to her next week. This is my only night that I don't have to do anything.'

"But I went ahead and called Megan to tell her I had a surprise for her. She said to come over that night and she'd cook dinner," Lisa remembers. "When I went home I left my cell phone there. Megan called and said, ‘I know you are going to St. Louis in the morning so I'll meet you in Ashland.'

"I went to meet her that morning. Megan was a lot bigger than I was and she always buried me in her arms," remembers Lisa, a petite woman who appears younger than her 49 years. "She gave me a big hug and a kiss and that was the last time I was with her.

"If it hadn't been for that cake I would not have seen her," Lisa says. "The inclination that I needed to go ahead and take that cake over there - that means to me that God was with me. God made sure I had that last time. I think he was very present through all this."

On Aug. 25, family and friends gather with Lisa and Nick Reeves for the dedication of their new Springfield home (shown above) which was built through Habitat for Humanity and Thrivent Builds, a financial organization of the Lutheran Church. Additionally, staff members of the Catholic Pastoral Center in Springfield, and the faith communities of St. Peter Parish in Petersburg and Holy Family Parish in Athens contributed monetarily and physically to the build. Students and faculty at Blessed Sacrament School and Cathedral School, both in Springfield, also made monetary contributions. Lisa, who calls building the home “a real healing experience” was already involved as a volunteer in the Habitat program before her sons became ill and her daughter passed away. Nick and Lisa had previously lived in a third-floor apartment, which made it difficult for Nick to walk up and down so many flights of stairs. Remembering the days she was still able to "mother" her daughter, Lisa says, "I had a very close relationship with Megan and sometimes she would want to go places and do things that really worried me. One time she drove this clunky car to Wyoming. But now I thank God she ignored me and did things anyway. You can be so overprotective and still things happen. She really just wanted to get married and have a family.

"Megan was very dramatic and very dynamic and she would do anything for anybody," Lisa says. "Nick and Megan were very close. He's been through all of it - the anger and the sadness. Like all of us he has good days and bad days. And because of his illness, I know there are times when he gets tired of being sick and not feeling good."

Living with grief takes its toll, Lisa explains. "The things you find very hard are any of the anniversary dates that come. For two weeks you anticipate it. I literally wear myself out with it. By the time the day comes you are so worn out that it doesn't even matter anymore. And the day after, it is like you've been through a storm and the storm has passed and it is all calm again."

Lisa believes participating in a grief support group is helping her heal. "Because of my job I belong to the ministerial association in Petersburg. In May 2006 we met and talked about starting a grief support group," Lisa says, shaking her head at the irony of it all. "I had expected to be a facilitator of the group, but I have ended up being part of it."

As a parent who has lost one child who was a donor and who is now awaiting a transplant for another child, Lisa understands the emotions involved in donating organs and tissue. "You know, Megan wanted to donate everything. We were able to successfully donate her corneas and some skin. That was all they could do because she went so quickly. At the time I was angry because we couldn't donate more. However, I know there is healing when a family is able to do those donations. I wish more people would do that.

"We have no idea when Nick's transplant will be," she adds. "It could be tonight or it could be two years from now."

Lisa has now had time to ponder about life and all the heartbreak she has endured. She tears up a bit when she speaks about the past 15 months, but is otherwise calm. "I think between losing Megan and what I've been through with Nick, I have been through the most difficult things that a mother can experience, other than not knowing where your child is.

"People will say to me, ‘How are you functioning? How do you get through this?' It's the people from the Pastoral Center. It's my friends. It is my parishes and the grief support group," she says. "It is everyone who has come to support me. I feel anointed by all of that.

"I feel that it is God's way of healing me, even though I've been through those dark days. There were days that were literally unbearable. I've been able to rise above it because of all the people who have come to my aid. The support I received at Megan's funeral. The support we received when Nick was so sick.

"When Nick was at Barnes my biggest fear was that people would forget to pray. Any time I would call the Pastoral Center and give updates, I would hear that everyone there was praying. My mother and her friends in Iowa were praying."

Although she has felt many emotions, Lisa has never felt angry with God. "I don't see the value in that. God is going to have to be the one who is going to get me through this. I am not going to spend time being mad at him. I hope that by telling my story, I am helping someone else.

"I know that I could have lost two children instead of one," Lisa attests. "I have never felt that I was alone through any of this. That is what God does. He works through other people."