Recently my long time neighbor lost her husband all of a sudden! He was only 49! It was a big surprise to hear of his loss, I saw him passing by many days of the week, and he was a fit guy! I left a message for her as she didn’t open her door to my knocks. I didn’t know if she would respond as she was a private person, I wasn’t sure if she would feel comfortable sharing? But I was so happy she called as his Memorial was the following day.
Boy, you learn new things about a person at Memorials. The family sharing can be so revealing and touching, when there’s ‘love’ in them …. and in this case there was genuine understanding that the deceased was in God’s care now. There was no question about that fact, and it was great to hear singers and pastor praising God, despite the heavy hearts of his wife, two children, the rest of the family. I was truly touched by the candor of the sharing and grief.
My neighbor and I had the chance to talk several times, and she told me ‘this was not supposed to happen! He was too young, I never planned for this.’ She told me how she was’ in a dark place’ recently re: God …. but ‘God’s so real to me now!’ At some point I shared about Marc and she told me …. “You know, my husband did tell me about Marc, but every time I saw you I just didn’t have the words to talk to you, but I did pray for you, along with the children!’ That was awesome to hear. Just to have her so honest in the time of both of our griefs just blessed me! I was so relieved that she was not getting real despondent. And I never knew she knew about my grief or cared that much. It just reminded me there’s a world of care and love out there that we may not know about!