It is Wednesday morning, March 3, 1982. The bulletin that would have been has been scrapped. Jean was found dead in her bed this morning. As late as yesterday evening she had talked to her sister by phone and had responded to queries about her health with: "OH, I feel fine." But, she had told her moth last evening, "I think the end is very near." Bravely and cheerfully she had braved hodgkins and other forms of cancer for years. She was most ready to drop the curtain on this act.
Left to mourn her are her mother and sister and brothers and her step-father. Left also is her church family that had grown to love her.
This preacher watched her form leave her mother's home for the final time and felt an ultimate helplessness while his soul searched the deepest depths it could fathom for meaning, for appropriateness. Emotions too deep to express remained captured in a heavy mass of grief. Too heavy to move.
What shall I say, Oh my soul? Like the black marker on an electricity meeter turning, turning, turning: "What shall I say, OH my soul?"
Well! Goodness has diminished from the earth! The goodness of one woman. That's what!
From our midst goodness, mercy, faith, patience and love have diminished.
Therefore, the most fitting thing we can do today and tomorrow is to have a bit more good-ness in our lives. A bit more mercy, a bit more faithand patience and love. For her sake let us begin anew to embody those traits for her memory's sake.
BL
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