Goodbye and farewell

Early Wednesday morning a friend lost her battle with breast cancer. It was a very long war with several battles, actually. The thing is, though, when you were with her during any of that time you didn't know she was at war. She was always upbeat, smiling. She genuinely took pleasure in life. She was a gentle warrior on other fronts as well. In 1985, she became the first woman to be ordained a deacon in our diocese (women's diaconal ordination had been approved in the 1950s, mind you), and she never stopped quietly nudging the local church authorities to allow women full access. She took her servant ministry very seriously. Having married into one of the well-heeled local families, she had ready access into our high society's drawing rooms where she rarely missed an opportunity to talk about the plight of the less fortunate and to "encourage" some philanthropic giving!  And she was very hands-on, too, ministering around town to the sick, the poor, and the needy. I remember her arriving at my door many years ago with an entire roasted chicken two days after I arrived home from a hospital stay (that was nearly as good as my friend PK coming over and scrubbing my bathtub!), "Not staying," she said. "Just thought this might come in useful." It seems that she died in the same manner she lived, with compassion for others - quickly, quietly surrounded by people she loved and who loved her. They will miss her, we all will miss her, in the midst of celebrating a life well lived.