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Five Weddings and Six Funerals
(page 3 of 3)
The first time I ever really met Lucile, she and her sister had invited us down for dinner and after we ate, she conducted a séance -- with our permission, of course. We were ushered into their living room, decorated as if Lincoln himself were living there, and she explained she wanted to invoke the spirit of a particular relative, Mary Davis, who had also lived on that hill generations ago. She brought forth a crystal ball and outened the lights. In the plush velvet chairs, we sat in darkness and waited for Mary to appear. At the reception after the service, I recounted this to Lucile's sister, Mary Jane, and she asked, "And did it work?" I didn't think so but who knows. What I do know is that it made a huge impression on me, probably a first and a last experience of that kind for me. It was later that I discovered her depth, as vast as the great mystery we attempted to summon that summer night at the farm.
We sang one hymn, Oh God Our Help in Ages Past, which has that heartbreaking line in it: "Time like an ever-rolling stream, soon bears us all away, we fly forgotten, as a dream, dies at the break of day."
I have attended so many funerals this past year and this hymn seems to be the one of choice. I sing that line through tears as I think of all the friends, now gone. It doesn't seem possible, losing so many friends, in such a short time. Each one so special, all sliding out of sight, like an ever-rolling stream. Lucile made a difference in all of our lives, the minister reminded us. Indeed she did. Just as Judy lives on, neither will Lucile "fly forgotten as a dream."
And so, the weddings and the funerals -- the great passages -- march on. I have three weddings and at least one funeral still to come this summer. Let's hope not more.
Reader Comments
Comment from Jeff P on August 16, 2009
Dear Edie,
I always so very, much enjoy your essays/stories here at Yankee Magazine! Life, like New England is ever-changing, and ever-eventful; where often something of great value is gained, and something of great value is lost. Thank you, for your heartfelt chronicling of these profound, personal events; of lives joining, and lives ending, from a first-hand perspective.
So far this year, I?ve lost one of my dearest Aunts, my son-in-law died suddenly, my marriage of thirty-two years was dissolved, and most painfully, my mother passed away on April 28th. But, on the other side of life?s coin; this past month, my son won the Maine state weight lifting championship, and following her husband?s sudden death, our swiftly diminishing family was still able to help my daughter to afford to remain in her home. And, I am, as always, blessed to furrow in the writing field another day.
As a fellow writer, I felt a comfort and kinship in our recent, respective times of joy and sadness
Peace,
Jeff
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