Funerals

I attended the visitation or memorial service for two people at our church who died this fall. The first was a late-20s graduate of our youth group whom I never met - though I'm acquainted with her parents and stepmother and stepsister. Jen was a chef and recycling activist who had gone to St. Paul during the Republican National Convention to cook for the protestors there (see "Country first night"). Although she had not stayed active in our church, she definitely took some of our principles to heart. If you look for her on the Web, you find her signature - eerily - on a petition pitching for safer roads for cyclists - and she died this fall after she and the bike she was riding down busy Bardstown Road were hit by a car. I talked with her mother (above) briefly and guessed right that the dog there (see above) was Jen's dog, which apparently her mother and boyfriend were taking care of.

As an elder, I pray especially for a dozen of our members, including - this past year - Roger - a recently retired insurance agent who moved from an elder apartment to a nursing care facility on the Masonic campus just blocks from our house. To my discredit, I did not go see Roger until he was very ill (the Masonic home was weirdly decorated for Halloween).

Roger was as sick that day as anyone I've seen - at least since I saw Grandma the night she died. His friend Shirley and her family members were there keeping watch, and I offered a quiet prayer. Sure enough Roger - suffering from Alzheimer's and at that point kidney failure - died a few hours after my visit. Later that week I was there for the service at church. A colorful montage of pictures and Roger's family members were there. I learned that Roger had given money to buy an organ in the Louisville Presbyterian seminary chapel. I also met Barbara, the woman who directs the cafeteria at the Center, to whom I had failed to give directions to the church for the service, who saw one of Roger's insurance clients whom he came to see until even after he retired.

Outside of church Roger's family members posed with our pastor - under the "Be Not Afraid" banner that our church Evangel Committee had put up for the run-up for Halloween (and then left for a while). This was the second picture - this one with Jane and Shirley, in the middle - the first with "just family" - without the two of them. This introduced the sort of issues that showed up when Stephanie's grandmother's beau Floyd died - and Mary had no legal or official connection with him - even though they'd spent a lot of the last few years of their lives together - with especially unmarried older couples who may have a difficult relationship with their kids. Still, it was nice learning more about Jen and Roger and meeting more of their friends and family members. The Jen visitation in particular attracted dozens and dozens of alternative lifestyle 20-somethings, like herself, who don't always grace the doors of our church - but who seemed to feel comfortable in our campus and Fellowship Hall (and maybe even a couple will come back!).

-- Perry