Today, we laid our dear friend to rest, all of us companions on a journey of laughter and sorrow, of soaring highs and aching lows.
And as we sang through silent tears the hymns she so loved, I was reminded of another voice from the past: a bright, energetic lilt belting out old tunes and show tunes alike as our coach rumbled down endless highways, with half of us wondering “are we there yet?” and the other half “where’s the nearest toilet? I can’t hold it in any more!”
As with most people, she’d have her favorite songs, one of which was that famous little ditty from Annie. You know, the one that just sounds like her:
The sun’ll come out tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow
There’ll be sun!Just thinkin’ about tomorrow
Clears away the cobwebs and the sorrow
‘Til there’s none.
And like most people, she’d sometimes forget her lines, and stumble to a sheepish halt.
But once in a while, she’d just make up new lyrics and soldier on. I suspect that on at least some of those occasions, she was just playing the fool.
If she were with us today, I daresay she would’ve cooked up something like this, with a cheeky grin:
When I’m stuck with a day that’s gray and lonely
I just stick out my chin and grin and say….LORD!The sun’ll come out tomorrow
So you gotta pray on till tomorrow
Come what mayTomorrow! Tomorrow!
God loves ya tomorrow
As much as He does today!
Truth in a song, bittersweet from our loss.
One of the last things she showed us all was how to prepare for the end. Her funeral mass was planned months before, but not micromanaged: She chose her favourite readings and hymns, and entrusted everything else to us.
I’m sure her earthly affairs were similarly cataloged, sorted and prepared as much as humanly possible. She never wanted to be a burden to anyone, and in her daily work at a local hospital, she must have been keenly aware of how an unexpected departure could derail the lives of the remaining family members. As the Book of Wisdom tells us:
their going looked like a disaster, their leaving us, like annihilation
Wisdom 3:2-3
Perhaps it’s time for us all to take a page from her own book of wisdom:
- to record what we have…and rid ourselves of what we don’t need,
- to focus more on enduring relationships…and less on unending strife,
- to plan for our departure…and let go of unnecessary secular attachments.
Dear friend, parting is such sweet sorrow, but I think I speak for everyone in your life when I promise you this:
We’ll remember how you loved us all each day, right up to your death.
We’ll celebrate your memory, the last essence of you, for in that way, you’ll still be with us here.
We’ll believe that we will see you on our last day, as a “welcoming party” of one…one with the saints in glory.
We’ll remember.
We’ll celebrate.
We’ll believe.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.