FARGO — Growing up in Zeeland, North Dakota, in a family of 15, Ray Meier became accustomed to a growling stomach. “Many times we had little food,” he says, noting that flour was often the only store ingredient they could buy. “We’d have milk soup.
We’d milk the cows and boil the milk, then put in some of the noodles we’d made. And that was it!” His parents, Germans from Russia, were English illiterate, but fully literate in the love of God, according to Ray. Daily, they meditated on Jesus’ life by praying the Rosary.
That faith, which included a steadfast trust in God’s provisions, has marked Ray’s life in an indelible way, including recently upon hearing: “You have ALS.” The diagnosis comes with an assurance of suffering. But Ray refuses to let it haunt him.
Even knowing a feeding tube would be forthcoming as his ability to eat and do other everyday tasks continues to wane, he shrugs, “I’ll get a lot of praying in!” ADVERTISEMENT His wife, Pat, who’s had her own health trials, says she initially resisted believing her husband of 54 years would be given such a devastating diagnosis, hoping it was instead myasthenia gravis, which, while still difficult, isn’t always fatal. But self-pity soon gave rise to hope for both; not in a cure or reversal, but in living life to the full as the gift it is. “In the morning when the sun is out, I say, ‘Thank you, God, for the sun!’” Ray says.
“And when we’re down at the lake — it could be m.
