Til Death Do Us Part

Conversations with the widowed - Marriage, Life, Death, and Love

The beginning of love is involuntary. It’s falling and helpless and head-over-heels. It’s a deliriously happy blush that poets and rock stars have spent history and will spend eternity trying to describe to us. But we already know how it feels. We’ve been there and we desperately want to go back there whether we’re single or newly married or divorced or reaching the end of a lifelong partnership. The beginning of love is the inclination to leap without looking. But, sooner or later, we have to look. We have to consider how we will ever go on living if something happens to these people who have become our treasures and where our hearts find rest. Authors Mike and Patti Paschall step into that scary question with Till Death Do Us Part. Through interviews with 12 brave souls who cared for their spouses during end-of-life illnesses, the Paschalls uncover the stories of men and women who have truly been a safe haven even as the storm of life drenched them to the bone. Till Death Do Us Part uses question-and-answer, so we hear directly from the sources. Each interview begins with “Tell us about how you two met and fell in love?” and works through the stories from there. Eventually, the authors come to queries such as “Did his personality change at any level?” “How much of the overall burden did you shoulder by yourself?” “Was there an opportunity to say goodbye before their final sleep?” The answers span the spectrum of human existence as we’re shown pain to the point of torture, love stronger than cancer, brokenness beyond the repair of trite encouragement, hope in things unseen and joy in the face of shattering adversity. In the end, Till Death Do Us Part spares easy answers and trite solutions, but instead buoys us as we face the most frightening questions of life and love and death.

After 30 years of full-time ministry, Mike and Patti Paschall have a tremendous desire to be an encouragement and help to married couples of all ages. They married in 1977 and remain best friends. They have two daughters (Nicole, married to Steven Brewer, and Paige, married to Jon Egan) and five grandchildren (Isabel, Jones, Lewis, Grace, and Esther), all of whom live in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Mike and Patti currently reside in Waco, Texas.

Patti was born and raised in Waco, Texas. Patti greets everyone with a warm smile, a big hug, and lots of love. Mike is quick to point out that Patti has the heart of a true pastor servant. She now spends most of her days taking care of her mother who suffers with memory loss.

Mike was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, but raised in Texas. He is a graduate of the University of Arkansas with a BSEd. He also has a Mdiv from SWBTS in Ft. Worth, Texas. Mike loves any opportunity to mentor young pastors, missionaries, men and women who are passionate about ministry and Kingdom. He also loves preaching, teaching, and writing. He is also particularly fond of a good hang with family, a cigar with a great friend, his Indian motorcycle, and an occasional trip to the golf course. He previously published the daily devotional RAW TALKS WITH WISDOM: Not Your Grandma’s Devo (www.rawtalksdevo.com).

Mike Paschall - mike@everytribeinternational.org

Patti Paschall – patti@everytribeinternational.org

http://mikepaschall.com http://everytribeinternational.org

@m.d.paschall