"Hey!" he says with a great big smile and firm handshake, "It's great to see you. What's it been? Fifteen, no twenty years since I seen you two?" A round stories follow beginning with "you remember the time ..."
Then a light comes on as the mind fully remembers, "Oh yeah, now I remember the last time I seen you. It was at (fill in any name here)'s funeral. Strange we only meet at these things. We need to get together sometime soon."
The afore mentioned story has happened at every funeral I have ever attended.
Yesterday, the Warden and I attended yet another funeral of a woman whose life had been unexpectedly shortened. Yesterday the Warden and I again vowed to renew old acquaintances and friendships. Isn't it strange that we let "life happen" rather than "live life"? We let life control us rather than staying in control of our lives?
"Yesterday" ... unlike "tomorrow" .... can never be changed and yet it will bear the memories that forever shape our lives.
Just some rambling thoughts.
Dennis
2 comments:
Had this same occasion this last Saturday at a friend's memorial service. I saw friends from churches we have attended over the years. What a bittersweet thing funerals are. My thoughts that evening, as I ponderered the day's activity turned to a hymn,"Blest Be the Tie that Binds."
Does it say something about us that we attend more funerals these days than weddings?
As we get older, it happens with more and more frequency. A lot of our conversations begin with did you hear that old ________ died? Oh well, I read the Obituaries every day to make sure I'm not in there. MUD
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