In 2018, Lauren Alaina dealt with a heartbreaking loss, when her stepfather, Sam Ramker, passed away, following a brave battle with cancer. Alaina is now opening up about that painful time, and how it completely transformed her faith.
“I remember praying and saying, ‘When he dies, I will never talk to You again,'” Alaina recalls on The Upload podcast. “I said that to the Lord. I was so angry. I was like, ‘I know You’re real, but I don’t know why You’re not listening.’ My faith and my love for the Lord was clouded with grief. When Sam passed, this was two, three days after I had this conversation, saying I’m never talking to You again,’ we were all around him in the living room, and he had not spoken for days.
“I’ll never forget it,” she continues. “He opened up his eyes, and he goes, ‘I found it.’ We were hanging on to every second, so everyone in the house shot up. My mom was in the bed, laying next to him in his bed. She said, ‘You found what?’ and he said, ‘Heaven. It is so beautiful.'”
View this post on Instagram
Lauren Alaina’s Faith Is Forever Changed By Her Stepfather’s Final Moments
The brief conversation that ensued became one of the most pivotal moments in Alaina’s faith, one she still gets emotional talking about today.
“He looked totally at peace,” Alaina remembers. “I’ll never forget it. He said, ‘Mom?’ and his mom was there greeting him. And he said, ‘I see Jesus, and He’s so beautiful. You don’t understand how beautiful He is. I wish you guys could see this.’ He described what he was seeing. And actually, this is really funny. He said, ‘What are you doing here?’ to someone. I think about that to this day. He saw someone there he wasn’t expecting to see. I cannot wait to get there someday and be like, ‘Who was that that you saw?’ I’m dying to know.”
Alaina went from being understandably angry with God, to feeling closer to Him than she ever had before, as she witnessed her stepfather pass away.
“I remember in the moment being like I never really doubted that God was real, but I questioned everything,” Alaina acknowledges. “In that time, he had been sick for so long. And he said, ‘I have to go now,’ and it changed my life. It truly changed my life.”
What Lauren Alaina Says About Her Faith After the Loss Of Her Stepfather
Now happily married and the mother of one, Alaina suffered another devastating loss in 2024, when her father, J.J. Suddeth, also passed away. But her faith remains strong, due in large part to what she experienced with her stepfather.
“I’ve had a lot of moments since then that have been really difficult,” Alaina concedes. “That experience defined my faith more than anything, because I feel like I was as close to God’s presence as you can get in this life. It was just an indescribable experience. You hear these stories all the time. You’ll hear people tell these stories. I lived one of those stories. I cannot even believe that. But I really think that Sam wanted us to know he was gonna be okay, and God allowed us to kind of get a glimpse of that. He was getting healed. And that took time to really feel that, because even after he died, we had this wonderful, amazing experience that I know so many families don’t get that.”
Photo Credit: That Girl Mason