Mom

My past few days have been spent in a whirl of activity: phone calls, errands, appointments and explanations. Phone calls to make sure the equipment for Mom in my house is returned. Errands and appointments to begin the process that we share today. Explanations about what, where, why, how, when. My days are filled with a different purpose.

As I sit at my desk this bright Saturday morning and listen to the sounds of my house, my house is quiet. No machines, no baby monitor, just the sound of the television as Zach starts to move around.

There are only a few people here today that have known Mom longer than me. As you moved into my Mom's life and loved my Mom, you were in our conversations, in Mom's pictures and woven into our lives. Wendy and I are thankful for the care and consideration you have given to fill Mom's life. You were her delight and she took great joy in your time together.

Today, as we celebrate Mom's life, we also celebrate our loving Father God, who fills our life with grace and mercy, and watches over our coming and going both now and forevermore.

Look around you. We have been blessed.

Death is nothing at all,
I have only slipped into the next room
I am I and you are you
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name,
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used
Put no difference in your tone,
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was,
Let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It it the same as it ever was, there is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near,
Just around the corner.
All is well.

By Henry Scott Holland (1847-1918)
Canon of St Paul's Cathedral