All of us will have that empty seat at the table this Holiday Season. While we begin to hear all of the Holiday cheer songs like” It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”. It is a time that we use to love and now dread. I know for me the three years that Kenneth and I were married the Holidays were filled with love and laughter. I can remember our first Christmas how we stayed up all night, he cooked and I watched. We had family over his family, his children, my family, my daughter. He was so excited about preparing the food. He peeled shrimp and cleaned fish. I layer on the sofa and was so excited at how happy he was. I cleaned the house and made sure that all guests would be comfortable upon arrival. It was one of the best days ever. We took so many pictures, we had enough food to feed the neighborhood. I had one dish to cook and it was the cornbread for the gumbo. My stepson Kennth Jr. asked, “who made this nasty cornbread”? My husband laughed, I said, I made it with this disappointed look on my face.
Everyone in the house agreed that the cornbread was awful. My husband said; “I did not marry my wife for her cooking”, and he assured me that it was okay. I wish that I could go back to that day, and live it all over again. The only thing I would do differently is make some better cornbread (lol) For the last two years, the seat at my table has been empty. The laughter that once came from that chair is not there anymore. That seat is empty and the person who once bought m so much joy is no longer here to eat the food that is prepared, no longer here to enjoy a glass of sweet ice tea or kool-aid. That seat is empty and each time I look at that seat I know that my world will never be the same since that seat at the table is empty. All I can do, all any of us can do is try to make the best out of our situations and try and not dwell on the empty seat at the table, but all of the joy that the person who once sat in the seat has brought into our lives.
About Jamie Foster
Jamie Foster resides in Daphne, Alabama with her daughter and two grand puppies. On January 10, 2019 at 10:30 p.m. her life was shattered as the man that God kept for her suffered a heart attack in his sleep. A fairytale that began so beautifully just three years prior ended in tragedy. She made a statement two years before she started dating Rev. Kenneth Foster, as he preached a sermon at her church. She said to a friend, “I am going to marry Rev. Foster one day, and make him a very good wife”. Two years later, after about 4 dinner dates, Kenneth told her; that God showed him that she was his wife. They married a few months later on November 28, 2015. In three years, they lived out their wedding vows richer, poorer, sickness, health, and till death do us part.
She never imagined that she could feel so much pain in her entire body!! The love of her life the man she prayed for is now gone. She immediately began to question everything she knew, everything she believed in.
After Kenneth’s death, she had nothing else to hold on to but the Faith that they talked about, the Faith that he preached about. The road is a difficult one, but she pushes forward. On this journey, she has come in contact with women all over the world who share the same grief and the same pain that she does. She started to find comfort and joy in knowing that others understood her heartache and pain.
In 2021, she left her full-time job to focus on her Mental Health. She became the CEO of Foster & Foster H.R. Solutions, an Independent Insurance Agent, a blogger of Foundation of Truths, a Motivational Speaker, and she is penning the pages to a book that is long overdue.
Jamie always knew that her gift, was her powerful voice and she is walking in her purpose. It is to help encourage, motivate, inspire, and lift up all of her fellow sisters as we are all on this journey together. She lives each day no matter how hard, by the words of Jeremiah 29:11 “I know the plans he has for me”.