Dear Friends,

I don't know if you would be interested or not but, there was a tape recording made of Barby's funeral service and is available to you at a very small cost.

If you are interested, write me at dsmith@harding.edu and we will see that you get one.

Thanks for all your love and support,

Dwight

Barby Smith, our wife, mother and grandmother, passed away and went home to be with the Lord this morning, Wednesday, 8/11 a little before 11:00. She was not in pain, and gradually went to sleep after some family time of singing, laughing and crying together. She did not participate, but we hope she heard it all…

There will be a time of visitation with family and friends Saturday, 8/14, 7:00-9:00 p.m. in the Founders’ Room, upstairs in the Heritage building on the campus of Harding University.

The funeral will be Sunday, 8/15, 2:00 p.m. at the College church of Christ building, 712 Race St., Searcy, AR 72143.

In lieu of flowers, please send contributions to: International Campaigns, Harding University, Box 10715, Searcy, AR 72149-0001.

She finished the race and fought the good fight. She has claimed the victory in Jesus. Praise God for his grace and our eternal life in Christ...

Thank you for all your love, prayers, emails, calls, etc.

Dear Love Ones,

Barby will not be with us here on this earth for very much longer. She has really gone down fast in the last several days. The doctors have taken her off all chemo and she is on a program that is called Hospice Home Care, which furnishes a hospital bed in the home, oxygen etc. She is in the bed most of the time now and hardly eats anything at all. She is very thin and we think it won’t be very long now until she goes “home” to be with God.

Thank you all for your prayers, notes, cards, e-mails and calls. We have two large baskets on our porch that are both full of all of these. You have all been such an encouragment to us and we thank God for each one of you. We continue to ask you to hold us all up before our Father. The next time that we will all be together is with our Lord and our Father in our heavenly home. As we say here at Harding, “we’ll meet each other in the Northeast corner of heaven.

We love you all very much,

Dwight and Barby

Dear Love Ones,

Just a quick update on Barby. She was in the hospital for two days last week to have ex-rays taken to see if there was an obstruction in her bowels. No obstruction showed up in the ex-ray. She has been on a new chemo almost two weeks now and has really been sick (vomiting, constipation and in a lot of pain and discomfort). She has not been able to be out of the house except to go to the Doctor’s office in about four weeks now. She doesn’t have much of an appetite but her Christ-like spirit is still showing through all of this. We continue to ask for your prayers for Barby’s complete healing and we continue to thank our God for His care. Thank you all for your e-mails and cards etc. If you would, send us your current e-mail address at dsmith@harding.edu

We love you all very much,

Dwight and Barby

Dear Loved Ones,

Thank you for being so faithful with you prayers and words of encouragement. I know it seems at times like my health is much like a ping-pong game. However, we know that God is faithful, and that He continues to be in control. Therefore, we refuse to be discouraged, knowing that whatever is the end result, I am still a winner—even though I also know that there are some here who may feel a loss.

My CA125 this week, which you’ll remember is the “tumor pointer”, had risen from 208 to 254. This, of course, means that the chemo we’ve presently been using is no attacking the cancer. However, neither of my doctors seems to be discouraged as there are still about three chemicals which we haven’t as yet tried. Next Wednesday they will begin a round of chemo called Gemzar taken ever two weeks intravenously. Supposedly this drug will not cause a lot of side effects except my blood counts (which I’m given a shot called Procrit for my red cells and shots on two successive days called Neuprogen for my white cells.

I’m feeling relatively well. I ‘m on pain pills which contain my pain most of the time but which cause constipation. Therefore, I’m on a prescribed laxative which actually causes diarrhea. This all causes additional discomfort and a necessity of being close to a bathroom most of the time. However, God is good, and He continues to give me a wonderful husband to serve me, family and friends to encourage me, an incredible health care team who more than meet my needs, and comfortable surroundings--so there is really much more good than bad going on.

This may be more than you wanted to read. Thank you again for your love.

I love you,

Barby

P.S. If you have left a message on this website and we don’t have your E-MAIL address on our Harding address-book, would you just drop us a line at dsmith@harding.edu so that we can add you. Thanks so much!

Dear Ones,

God certainly seems to be answering your prayers in incredible ways in my life. Beginning the Thursday before Mother's Day (our children and grandchildren had all flown in for the week-end), my health began an amazing turn-around. For several weeks before that time, none of us really thought I might make it through each night. However, God has been strengthening me and (though I am on some tablets three times a day) controling the pain--which had gotten quite intense. I have gone to worship the past two Sundays (I had been unable to go for several weeks). I have begun doing small tasks around the house, and today I spent several hours at the office. I also went to the 4:00 PM ("Early-Bird Bible Class") and stayed afterward to visit with members of the class.

God is so good! I don't know if He will heal me permanently, and we won't know about my medical numbers until next week. However, we're enjoying this better quality of life, and we're just living one day at a time (which is all we've ever had!)

Thank you all for your prayers, notes, cards and e-mails of encouragement. They really make a huge difference in my life. We love you!

Dwight and Barby

The following poem was written by Karen (Massey) Stork, the daughter of Fred and Peggy Massey (Fred is the surgeon who did Barby's surgery). This poem hangs in Fred's office. This describes Barby as I have watched her live her life with me over the last 46 years.
I Caught Your Faith

I saw you stand bravely for years,
But saw no trace of senseless tears.
I saw you stand calmly through stress,
But caught no glimpse of bitterness.
I saw you stand prayerfully in grief,
But saw not trace of unbelief.
Though you spoke well of Jesus the Christ,
I caught your faith by watching your life.

Karen Stork -- 1983

We appreciate all of your expressions of love and prayers for Barby's healing. If it's God's will that she be healed we will be very grateful, but if not, we pray for strength to accept what ever God's will may be.

We love you all very much,

Dwight

To all of our loved ones,

Just a quick up-date on Barby. She is virtually bedfast now and is in
pain much of the time now and does a lot of sleeping in the bed.
Unless God chooses to work a spectacular healing in the next few weeks,
we can't see her life continuing for very long. We don't want to sound
negative at all because we know God knows best and Heaven is a
wonderful home.

We want to thank you all for your love, cards, E-MAILS and phone calls
and continue to covet your prayers for God's healing hands to be on
Barby.

We love you all very much,

Dwight and Barby

Dear Ones,

I had a CAT scan last Friday and received the results yesterday afternoon--which, medically, was not very encouraging. Basically, none of the chemos which they have been using in the past have attacked the tumors adequately. They will be changing to a new chemo next Monday, but at this point they say that this will be only to improve my comfort level and to extend whatever life I have. The statistics of ovarian cancer at this point and at this stage are just not good. However, I know, and you know that all of this is taking God out of the picture. I don't believe--and never have believed--that the chemo is what will heal me. It will be God--and God can still heal me if He so chooses--with or without the help of the chemo.

Our trip to Scotland is up in the air just now. Hopefully, if this new chemo helps me to be more comfortable (which we'll know in three weeks) I can still go. It's really my call; but I have known for the past few weeks that if something didn't change, I would not be able to make the trip. This, too, is in God's hands--and we're trying our best to be His flexible instruments.

My biggest prayer right now--and one which I would ask that you all pray--is that whatever is ahead for Dwight and me during the next weeks/months, that we will glorify God in it. We have no way of knowing what this might be, but we do know that God is in control. This gives us all the assurance we need to face any and every situation.

We love you and thank you for past and future prayers,

Dwight and Barby