My friend, Minnie Pearl, died this morning about 4:45. The mother of my dear friend, Virginia, Minnie Pearl was also my own sweet friend. Last time I released a new work, Minnie Pearl told her daughter with a sly smile, "Sandi published another book? Why, that little rascal!" I'm not sure whether I'm a rascal for publishing or for failing to tell her the moment the book released, but either way, I confess that I sort of like the title.

Virginia lived in the hospital at her mother's side, day and night, for weeks. I pulled only two-and-a-half all-nighters with them, which has been an honor. And I've also learned something profound.

The first night I stayed over, I quietly sang to Minnie Pearl because she loved the old hymns of the faith. And suddenly in response she started forming words. It seemed like she was saying, "Softly..."

Was I too loud? I sang barely above a hum. Maybe she was making a hymn request--did she want me to sing "Softly and Tenderly"? When I asked Virginia, she came over, listened and translated: "She wants coffee."

Sure enough, Minnie Pearl's lips were dry as toast. So we spooned coffee into her mouth, followed by small ice chips. In short, she was saying to any human near enough to listen, "I thirst."

It had been more than a week since she'd ingested food. Days passed since she'd known her own family members. And though she sometimes opened her eyes, we were pretty sure she no longer had sight. Yet here's what struck me as significant about that: When pretty much everything else connected with this life had left her, she still felt such overpowering thirst that somehow she found a way to form words to express her most basic of human needs.

In the past when I've thought of the passion of the Christ, I've thought primarily of the pain of separation from Jesus' Father ("Why have you forsaken me?") and the end of earthly relationships ("Woman behold thy son"). Only after standing on holy ground with my friends have I also glimpsed the kind of suffering that must have been behind these words: "I thirst."

But whoever drinks some of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)