She Is Risen

About 500 people joined us for Sue's memorial service on Good Friday. It was a good service, planned by Sue together with three of her close friends, Cindy, Maggie and Debbie. We have appreciated all the outpouring of support and love by cards, calls, letters, emails, comments posted on this blog, visits, food, flowers, memorium gifts to Camp Keola and Mennonite Central Committee, and your participation in or attendance at the memorial. And we have appreciated your prayers.

If you missed the memorial service, here's a copy of the slide show put together by computer genius, Doug Martin. (Turn your sound on to hear "For Good" from Wicked The Musical.)



One amusing story I neglected to pass along happened on Sunday, March 21. That was the last time Sue went to church. I got her dressed and trundled in the wheelchair and off we went. A lot of people who were aware of her condition were surprised to see her there at church. Unknown to me, two of my sisters, Cyndi and Maggie, went by our house about five minutes after Sue and I left for Church. Our friend and neighbor, Cindy, also went to our house at the same time for the same reason, and encountered my sisters there outside our front door. They were all going to offer to stay with Sue while I went to church.

They rang the doorbell and knocked to no avail, and then began to panic wondering if something was wrong inside. So Cindy, our neighbor, ran home to get her key to our house and when she got back they let themselves in only to find Sue was gone! She was not in her hospital bed or anywhere to be found. Then they wondered if she had died, so Cindy (the neighbor/friend) called her husband, Mark, who was running sound at the church and who had already seen Sue and me sitting in the sanctuary, and told him they couldn't find Sue and what did he think that meant? He replied to her that: "She is risen." Cindy was flustered at Mark's response, and so he told her that Sue was sitting in church with me and he repeated that "she is risen." Cindy then replied, "she is risen, indeed!"

One week later Sue really did die, and now she is risen in the Biblical "made new" sense of the word. The world is still turning, as we knew it would, and we are slowly adjusting to life without her.

I'll have a few more posts on this blog to wrap up my thoughts about Sue's passing, recount a few more stories, and to give general and specific advice, both practical and legal, about pre- and post-death planning.