Matthew
25:40 “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
November 13, 2014
6:30 PM
I am standing at the graveside of one of our ward
members. It is dark. The wind is blowing. Light snow flakes are swirling around my
face. It is about 10 degrees below
cold! But I feel warm. A kind voice breaks the silence of my
thoughts. “Would you like to get inside
the pick-up and be warm?” “No thanks,
I’m OK.” I feel warm.
I think about the events that have just taken place and
things that have happened in the last few days since our friend “Al” passed
away.
He was an “old” 70 years.
His life had been rough. He had
worked hard most of his life until his body had started giving in to the
consequences of his hard life, his choices, his various jobs and just
nature. He worked mostly in large construction.
He suffered from various forms of physical break-downs in
his once strong body. He could only walk
a few steps without having to stop and catch his breath. He carried around his oxygen canister. Oxygen was his constant companion. He was told recently that he had cancer. He was tired.
Tired of being alone in his single-wide home up a long and windy road
several miles from town. Tired of taking
all those pills that brought on so many side effects. Tired of not being able to go out and serve
people like he wanted to. Tired of
everyone having to take care of him.
Tired of not being able to come to church.
He knew it wouldn’t be long before he would be called
home. He was determined to endure as
best he could. He still had a smile for
you anytime you visited. He had a dream
that he would be able to sell off all his property and go to Florida to be with his ex-wife. She came to be with him the last couple of
months and cared for him. She was a
tremendous help to him. She was really
the only family he had besides his ward family here.
The warmth I am feeling comes from witnessing how this ward
family took care of him in the last few days.
The resources were not available to have what we would call
a normal burial so the bishop worked out with the funeral home director the
details for a very memorable and better than normal burial!
Al’s home teacher has a family graveyard on his property. He volunteered to let him be buried there. The
bishop and the high priests
group leader got materials and built a beautiful pine box for him to be buried
in. The bishop’s wife had to help get
the completed box out of their basement and into the truck.
The missionary elders and ward mission leader went out to
Al’s place and loaded 3 pick-up loads of garbage that Chris had sorted and took
it to the transfer station.
The graveside service took place this evening. His elder’s quorum president and counselor, a
counselor in
We then loaded the box into the funeral directors SUV and
drove the 15 or so miles to the grave site. It was off the road, past the house, and up a hill to the tree line. Al's home teacher had used his large backhoe and dug out the grave. It was a very large hole. He had laid a couple of 2x10's across the hole to set the casket on. In the swirling wind, snow flakes, and headlights, a few of
his friends brought the casket from the vehicle and placed it carefully on the boards. I tried to hold my umbrella over
a dear sister that was told today that she has pneumonia. She
Straps were put under the box and he was lowered carefully
to his final resting place. As they did
this, I thought of the friends that lowered the man through the roof who was
sick of the palsy. They were lowering
him to the feet of the Savior to be healed.
That is kind of like what Al’s friends were doing. We know he is now healed.
This is what friends do.
I am so grateful to have been witness to this experience. Thankful to be in this place mourn.”
I can leave now and go back to our apartment still feeling
warm and good, hug my wife and say, “I’m glad we are here.”
No comments:
Post a Comment