GRAND BLANC -- It was an emotional Mother’s Day at New Life Christian Fellowship Church in Grand Blanc on Sunday. Before a ladies luncheon, and a Mother’s Day service, Cathy Hendrick of Hendrick Motorsports spoke of God’s faithfulness in the mist of grief and unimaginable tragedy in her life: the death of her husband and twin daughters in a plane crash just a few years ago.
“I have peace in knowing where they are, but I miss them terribly,” Hendrick said in an interview with NBC25.
Her Husband, John Hendrick, once president of the NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports and their twin daughters Kimberly and Jennifer died in a plane crash in 2004. Several members of the racing organization’s staff were also killed in the crash. Cathy Hendrick said the years since have been very emotional, and recalled a recent time she thought of her twin daughters.
“It was just in the last six months I was able to watch a video that Kimberly had taken. I actually heard a voice. She said “mom” on the tape and I so desired to see and be with them again,” she said.
As she told the congregation, it was through prayer and her faith in God that she was able to survive such a devastating point in her life.
“When it happened, and I think everything is always in His time, if this had happened 10 years before I probably would have struggled more, but I knew he is loving and compassionate, and good and kind; everything the scripture says he is.”
She said faith makes the unbearable at least a little more bearable and that she is not facing her family’s tragedy alone.
“He is trustworthy in all circumstances. No matter what storm comes into ones life, we can trust him to go through it with us,” Hendrick said.
Cathy Hendrick said she also learned the value of forgiveness. She does not hold the pilots responsible for what happened, acknowledging their families face the same pain as hers.
