In Memoriam: Timothy Kretzmann

My heart breaks as I update this online book to say that Tim Kretzmann, my dear husband for 34 years and beloved father of our three grown children, died of cancer on August 6th of this year.

So much that I have written here about spiritualizing family life…and it all remains true. But what was largely left unsaid was the beauty of having such a loving, calm, deeply devoted presence in our home.

Every family has its own journey. I was blessed to have Tim in my life to help me in this journey. Indeed, I believe it was an important sacred task in his lifetime to raise the three children in God.

Sometimes I do feel his loving, saintly blessings guiding me. Will this continue to be so? I do deeply hope so.

Our married daughter is due to give birth in a few weeks…so the cycle continues. Our hearts will embrace this little one and healing will come. Yet there will always be the bittersweet feeling of wishing that Tim could be here to share in it all.

And yet some things just were not destined to be…and so we must find peace in God’s bigger picture even if we don’t fully understand it now. Sometimes I think I understand parts of it…but then my heart breaks anyway, so my journey now is to find peace, anyway, joy, anyway, and love, anyway.

If any part of our journey written in the pages can help you on your own, then I am grateful to have served you in this way. Love one another. Love inspires and uplifts, and Love lives on.

Blessings,

Mary Kretzmann

Author, Finding God In Your Family