Mom's Graveside Service

We had mom's graveside service this morning.

When death came for mom, it came quickly. I surprised when we got the call. Just the previous day, she seemed to be rebounding, then, as is often the case, she seemed just to have given up.

In a Priesthood of all Believers way, her two surviving sisters called her what turns out to be very shortly before she died. A nurse held the phone up to her ear and they both prayed for her. How wonderful. How sweet!

Because she was COVID positive, there were many restrictions on what we could do by way of memorizing her.

We asked her favorite chaplain from the home to take charge of the graveside service and he agreed.

We actually discouraged everyone older than my generation from attending the service and, after several people twisted the arm of my dad's 92 year old brother, they all stayed away.

There was a small turn out, but the moment was sweet and appropriate.

Nearly everyone shared a memory of mom, and they were all apropos.

People talked about her smile and her easy laughter, that she forced my very staid father to lighten up, that mom and dad were very deeply in love. It was wonderful. There were no tears, though, no doubt, the tears will come.

One observation and one impression:

All of the people who attended were from dad's side of the family. That surprised me. There are many good reasons that people on mom's side couldn't be there...health...distance. But that cousins from the other side came suggests to me that mom stood out as a source of joy on dad's side. I described dad as staid. They all were. Mom stood out in that crowd.

As far as the chaplain is concerned. He's a nice guy and it's very understanding that mom liked him as much as she did...

...but, I came away questioning his theology.

He asked for Scriptures and, off the top, I gave him Psalm 23, which he read, 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, (to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord). He read that one, too.

But, I also asked for 2 Thessalonians 4:13-18 which he edited and left out, "the dead in Christ will rise first..." and, John 14:1-6, from which he left out everything but Thomas's question, paraphrased, "How do we get there?," and he ignored, "...no one gets to the Father except through me."

He seems a little light on the immense eschatological joy that is ours through Jesus.

Now, everyone present knew those words were there, so, no big deal except that, for us, that's where the profound comfort is.

Anyway, besides that, it was a nice day, and a lovely way to say goodbye to mom.