A friend of mine left the planet recently after a long and wonderful life – the last few years marred by dementia.? The funeral / memorial was called A Service of Memory Celebrating the Life of my friend.
African American funerals are almost always much more fun and much sadder than white funerals.? And so it was with this one.? The program included a wonderful picture and an obituary which pointed out that she had been rejected from nursing school – oh so long ago and a culture shift away – because of discrimination – but then became a nurse’s aide and working in the newborn nursery at General Hospital for 34 years.
I knew her as a fellow Board member on several Boards, and as a volunteer whenever the neighborhood needed something done.? As I listened to the stories about all she had done in her life, and how many people she had helped, I wondered how she had ever found time to take care of our community as well.
There was a wonderful video, a musical interpretation by 3 of her great-grands, lots of us making remarks, a poem, wonderful hymns by several different choirs, resolutions and acknowledgements, psalms and other scriptural passages, the eulogy, with the closing song a medley by the Homegoing Choir.
And I know I missed a great meal afterwards – the wonderful smells were wafting through the church near the end of the service.? But it was nearly 2-1/2 hours by that time, and the day before Easter – as well as a major dinner to prepare that evening.
A blessed and beautiful event.