1025

Hillary was involved in Campus Fellowship when I first got there freshman year. I remember talking to her about glossolalia - speaking in tongues - she was the first person I ever heard use that word. Hillary loved the Lord and she loved everyone around her with a kind and sweetly nurturing spirit.

I never kept in touch much with Hillary since that first year but would see her now and then at prayer meetings. She battled cancer on and off and everyone in PoP prayed for her often. When she was very sick a few years ago, a team of people was put together to make sure people went to pray with her every day. And one of my favorite memories from the Linczer family is how at morning prayer William, age 8, buried underneath a blanket he'd thrown over his head, would drowsily offer the petition, "For Hillary Bollman ...." That kid knew about persistent prayer.

I last saw her a few weeks ago when the young adults group went Christmas caroling at Fountainview, the nursing home where she was for a while. She was dealing with some tough medical news, and a lot of pain, but she sang with us anyway.

Hillary was hospitalized yesterday. Last night a friend suggested we both go visit her on our lunch breaks. Initially I said yes but as the workday began with the usual chaos I decided I couldn't handle a hospital visit on my break and I would go after work instead. "After work" never happened - a crisis kept me overtime - and I thought maybe after dinner ... but after dinner we got the call that she was gone.

True to form, PoP surrounded her for her last couple of days. Several people have mentioned how moved they were to have been there for a while in her hospital room, praying and singing ...

I bet that's what she's doing right now.