More on Joe

I was able to end my business trip early, and am flying home a day before originally scheduled, so that I can attend Joe’s funeral on Saturday. It took a little bit of googling to get the info, because I hadn’t been able to find his obituary online, and I didn’t want to disturb his family. After jumping through some internet hoops, I got a phone number for the funeral home handling his service, and phoned them to find out the details. While I was speaking with them, I asked them to let Nurse Jenny know that the entire TDB community was thinking of her and her family, and missing Joe.

My original plan had been to head straight from the airport to Joe’s small town, spending Friday night there, and then head to the funeral Sat. But after a good night’s sleep, common sense reasserted itself in my brain. It’s an afternoon funeral, only 3 hours away, and I don’t have the spare change for hotels like I used to. So I’ll be giving myself a good night’s sleep tonight, and leaving early enough in the morning to arrive without feeling rushed, and to leave myself time for a leisurely lunch. This will also give me the opportunity to print out the poem I wrote, for Nurse Jenny and the kids, and to print out the TDB postings and comments, as well, in case they’ve not done that for themselves.

The service will be at Joe’s church, not at the funeral home. I think this is the first funeral I’ve been to since my Mom’s, so I’m not sure how it will feel, for me. Especially since, as far as I know, I’m the only TDBer that will be able to make it there. 

As I was hovering between wakefulness and sleep on my first flight this morning (we left Medford at 625am, and I am NOT a morning person), I kept thinking there has to be some significance to the fact that Joe joined his savior on Ash Wednesday. 

For Christians, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten season, a 40-day period during which we are to ponder the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf. For many Christians, it is also a time for making personal sacrifices, denying ourselves as a means of solidarity with Him who denied everything for our sakes. Lent leads right into Good Friday, which somehow always sounds like a misnomer when you think about what happened on that day, and Good Friday is followed by Easter.

As I was falling asleep on the airplane this morning, the thought that flashed through my head was that Joe didn’t have to wait for Easter this year. He’s already celebrating the resurrection of his risen Lord, just as he did every day. And then I thought that perhaps Easter will be particularly poignant for his family this year, since Easter also reminds us that just as Christ rose from the dead, so will His people. 

Joe is sleeping now, for awhile, where there is no pain, no illness, no damage from strokes; where there is only eternal love. We who are still awake will miss him, but we’ll see him again, and we’ll celebrate Easter together with him, when the fullness of time has come.

Until that day, we’ll hold him in our hearts, and rejoice that we had him in our lives.