A Good Life

Posted by Picasa
Yesterday, in between interviews and phone calls and the other things that make up a typical day for me, I plundered the photo albums in my office, for photos of Bill. Katie was going to make up several mini albums that evening to display at the church today at his funeral.
Going through two decades of photo albums was like stepping into a time machine.
There were years and years of parties--celebrating weddings, Christmases, special birthdays, the arrival of babies, trips to various places, staff retreats etc.--our lives woven into the lives of the people with disabilities that we support.
Several things struck me as I went through the albums:
Some of us were a lot thinner a few years ago
Some of us had a lot more hair
We party a lot
The people we support really do have a good life
We are a lot more like family than anything else
Today we came together to celebrate a "home-going."
While there were tears, there was also laughter. The man we were remembering today was celebrated by a flock of people who loved him. He truly had a good life and had an impact on many people.
There were two tables with displays of special treasures Bill had kept over the years. On one there was a small black New Testament that I had not seen before. The pages were yellowed with age. The small book was 60 years old! Inside, these words were written:
To Billy Shaw
from his Sunday School teacher
Miss McIntosh
November 1947
Acts 16:31
"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household."
The prayers that no doubt were sent to heaven on Bill's behalf by that teacher, and by the mom he loved and missed so much and who was a believer, were answered in many ways along the way. They were completely answered in recent years when Bill's room mate took him to church and said to the pastor, "Pastor Rick. Bill needs Jesus." One day soon after that Sunday, Pastor Rick had a visit with Bill in his apartment and prayed with him as he made his commitment to Christ.

As we visited after the funeral over the lovely luncheon kindly provided by the ladies of Bill's church, many people mentioned seeing the rainbow on Friday evening. It seemed that everywhere people spotted it and marveled at its unusual intensity and size.

Until we meet again Bill!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Voyage

Image
Note from Belinda: I read this prayer yesterday and again today--and then I read it to Susan after cell group, when we were having our "second cup" of decaff coffee together. I knew that she'd love it. She has a framed picture on her office wall of a little blond haired girl in a sail boat on a stormy sea. A fatherly sailor,with a weather beaten face; in a gray sou'wester, holds her close, as he capably mans the tiller. This prayer reminds me of that picture and influenced what I wrote earlier today, when I used the metaphor of ebbing waves to describe a lack of consistency and my desire to crash over the sandbar into the peaceful pool on the other side.  ( Susan sent me a link to the painting, which was done by American impressionist Robert Reid in 1888.  It hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in NYC.) Be bless ed by the beauty of this prayer. OH LORD OF THE OCEANS, My little bark sails on a restless sea, Grant that Jesus may sit at the
Read more

Ere Zij God--Glory to God in the Highest! A Dutch Carol

Image
By Belinda This beautiful Dutch carol was shared today by a friend of Dutch ancestry, on Facebook. I had never heard it before but absolutely loved it. It moved me deeply, especially at the end after the crowd leaves the church and then breaks into spontaneous singing again around a brazier, with the sound of chiming church bells in the background. Listen to it with headphones or a good speaker to get the full effect of the harmonies. And happy first Sunday in Advent!
Read more

Samson Beaver and his Family

Image
I first posted this in 2009, a little show and tell about one of my favourite photographs. Back then it hung on a wall, but now it's in my bathroom where I see it every morning! I'd forgotten the history behind the story, researched when I first posted this and thought that current readers might enjoy it--a story from a time when this land was still being discovered, not so very long ago. This photograph was taken by Mary Schaffer; artist, photographer, writer and naturalist, in 1907. It is of a Stoney Indian named Samson Beaver, with his wife Leah and daughter, Frances Louise. I bought the photo on a postcard, on a trip to British Columbia and it hangs framed, on the wall I face when sitting at my laptop. I love it. Don't you just feel as if you could gather Frances Louise up in your arms and cuddle her? I get a deep sense of peace and happiness when I look at this family, sitting in the grass of a long ago fall. They are dressed in their best, beautiful c
Read more