When Life Goes from Cruise Control to Out of Control : The True Story of How God Helped a Couple Through Two Adult Children's Suicides Six Weeks Apart

August of 2011 started a chain of events that turned our world upside-down! First, I was fired from my job of 15 years. I was 62-years-old and insulin dependent. Second, six months later, a disk problem developed in my lower back causing excruciating pain with every move. All I could do was lie in bed in one position for five weeks. Third, the latter part of May, we received word that our 34-year-old Army son had committed suicide. It was then that the bottom fell out of life! Unfortunately, the bottom was not the bottom. The first week of July, we were notified that our 32-year-old daughter had attempted suicide and was in the hospital in critical condition. We flew to her bedside but missed seeing her alive by two hours.

In ten months' time, our world was totally turned upside down! It was as though we went from "cruise control," to "out of control!"

The Bible says the experiences of the Old Testament saints are recorded for our example and instruction (1 Corinthians 10:11) so, we turned to Job to see how he handled his suffering. Like us, Job was filled with a boatload of why’s? It was then we took note that instead of God answering the WHY’S, God him an awareness of the WHO.

Such is our story contained in these pages…

Jim and Ginny Garnett