Emotions flooded my heart as I was leaving the park where a garden had been placed in honor of my treasured friend, Lori, who passed to her eternal home seven months ago. Lori’s family created a gorgeous flower garden and dedicated it this weekend in memory of their beloved wife, mom, daughter, and sister.
Heaven gained an amazing soul in 2017, and all who knew Lori lost a one-of-a-kind treasure. During the months since Lori’s death, I’ve pondered how she impacted me.
Lori was a childhood friend whom I was out of touch with for a season until we reconnected through social media in recent years. Lori was one of the first girls I met when I moved from Florida to Georgia in the sixth grade. As the new girl at school, I was given a heaven-sent blessing in becoming friends with Lori. I have precious memories of spending time with her when she was a giggly girl. We enjoyed fun times of laughter together, going to the lake, and hanging out at my house as grammar school girls. Lori is in the photo below at my 12th birthday celebration.
During our first year of high school, I was inspired by Lori’s love of books. She was smart, but what stood out the most about Lori was her pure heart. She held a strength and wisdom that many do not possess until later in life. She was steady, loyal, kind, and she did not have a need to try to be popular or cool.
Lori obviously had a close connection with God from an early age and she had a genuine concern about others. The love she drew from her close relationship with Christ overflowed out of her heart onto the lives of every person she met.
After attending several years in high school with Lori, I moved to another school and rarely saw her anymore. Then following our high school years, I briefly reconnected with Lori and she wrote some letters to me while she was away at college. Lori’s kindhearted, caring heart was obvious even in her written letters. During that season of corresponding through letters, I was married, settling into a new home and somehow our correspondence fell away.
With our lives changing due to marriage, our friendship slipped away and we did not stay connected as friends for several decades. Thankfully in our forties, Lori found me on Facebook and reached out to me with a very loving message. It felt like a miracle to reconnect with her. After we reconnected, I wrote the following message: “As I look back over my life, you were truly one of the sweetest friends I’ve ever had. I’m thankful to the Lord for reconnecting us.” The words I wrote to Lori are true—she was indeed one of the sweetest friends ever. I’m incredibly grateful to have had a soul like hers touch my life.
Choosing from all of Lori’s strengths, I believe it was her consistent, steadfast devotion to Christ throughout her life that made her such a beautiful soul. In the midst of her excruciating battle of fighting cancer, Lori drew closer to Christ instead of turning away from Him in her suffering. She leaned on Christ with a heart filled with faith and her devoutness to Him was revealed in every aspect of her existence. Lori was faithful and she was a Proverbs 31 woman in every sense of the word.
Christ has used Lori’s death as a catalyst for me to walk with a fierce determination for living a life fully set a part for the glory of God. It’s as though her death is propelling me into my destiny and giving me an even more fiery passion to share about the redeeming love of Christ with as many people as possible.
When it’s all said and done, nothing else matters more than loving Christ and loving people. Love is truly what this world needs more than anything else. Lori loved well and lived her life well as she loved others deeply, pouring out herself into the lives of many. Her legacy is truly one defined by Christ’s love.
We are all simply passing through this earth for a short time and we get one shot at leaving an eternal impact on the world. The Bible says in James 4:14: “You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”
With Christ’s help, we can all live with a singleness of heart all the days of our lives. May these words about my childhood friend touch your heart and prompt you to live with purpose—to build a lasting legacy of love with the life you’ve been given.
Lori will forever be in my heart and her impact will last for eternity.
Lori Stovall LaPlatney
August 8, 1965 – November 11, 2017
