Last Words

"In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do." Stephen Covey

You sit in a memorial service for a loved one. The things she did with her life are enumerated. Where she went to school, her occupation, her devotion to her family, her involvement in the community, her hobbies, her benevolence with church and charity. Anecdotes are shared, always poignant and often funny, of things she said. You somehow smile through your tears. It's a concrete way to celebrate her life. You are thinking, "We'll never forget you!" but there's a panicky little thought that maybe she will slip away forever.

As if that could ever happen! As the years go by, you may forget what she did and you may not recall everything she said, but who she was made such an indelible impression on you that while she may be dead, she lives on in you. You wish that those children born after her death could have known her, but in a way they do. Everyone who knows you knows her, too. They never witnessed her deeds or heard her voice. Yet she touched you and you touch others and in that very important way she never dies.

Susan