you should read John's blog

Our son John- at his college graduation last December, with our daughter Julia

You should read John's Blog. Today he wrote about a funeral we shared... Julia ran the office, John ran the media, I buried Mary... a woman ready to meet her maker at the end of a full life. John speaks his heart, my heart as well, in today's posting. Check it out here. I'm not going to write about it... not much anyway... my mother's dying... doing the funeral for another mother, so close in age to my own, took it's toll.

John tells the best part. My father's great aunt Laura... guess that would be my great, great aunt Laura, died in the early 1900's and is buried near the graves of my grandparents in Princeton, Indiana. Her final words are engraved in the black granite tombstone she rest beneath: "Tell the church I love Her..."

Visiting Mary, the woman I buried today, while she was in intensive care, some of her final words were spoken as she reached her hand to grasp mine, eyes closed... tears trying to work their way up into the dehydrated lids... same words as my great, great aunt Laura... you could have pushed me over with a feather... it was like I was standing in the spring grass on that little plot outside of Princeton again: "Tell the church I love her."

Today she's at Home with The Lord. Hope she gets to hang out with Aunt Laura in Heaven.

I've been doing my best to guard my heart against the days to come... sitting with dad, now 93, I told him the sweet story of Mary's passing, her final words to me. Reaching out, dad looked me in the eye and said: "Eric, when you know I'm near the end, remind me to say something really good. To 'tell the church I love her.'" Processing the words I'd share today, I realized again that there are no worries for dad, for mom... they've told the church they love her everyday, in all they do. She's been our life... and I'm glad, no regrets, only humbled that God would use us.

Those are our children- my parent's grandchildren, the great, great, great niece and nephew of Aunt Laura and they love the church. Today they told Her with their lives... and made their old man proud... more importantly, made their Heavenly Father proud. Hopefully, however eternity works, aunt Laura and maybe even Mary, were able to share the joy.

In the midst of the sadness, it was a good day. Thanks for reminding me John.

Tell the church I love Her.

Eric