The passing of life

Sunday
Our sunny dry weather continues, though overnight temperatures are beginning to cool off a little. We had a good morning at church, with Bible study following - we are looking at the Old Testament book of Daniel at present. We then returned home for lunch, then had to leave again about 1.50 to drive to a memorial service further east than us. This was for our current choir director’s wife, Susan. She was diagnosed in June with Stage 4 Pancreatic cancer, and died a couple of weeks ago. We had only met her a couple of times, as she was pianist at another church, and that was where the service was. We took another lady from our choir with us, and I was glad to see quite a number of people from our church had gone, even though it is a bit out of the way, and it was announced this morning that it would be live streamed. It was quite a unique service, which had been scripted in detail by Susan, and she was very “present” during the service. The music playing as we walked in was recorded piano music, and I said to Roger, I expect that is Susan playing. Then, once everyone was in place, it switched to a video of Susan playing some of her favorite hymns. The hymns that we sang - she was clearly a lover of traditional hymns - were likewise sung to her video accompaniment. She had even told the pastor what message she wanted him to give! She used to take notes of his sermons, and kept record of them, and she wanted him to use one he had given, where we are described as jars of clay. She had also recorded a message herself, basically her testimony, saying whilst obviously the initial diagnosis was a huge shock, she later came to regard it as a blessing. As opposed to someone who dies suddenly, she had time to settle things and meet with all those who were near and dear to her. They had two children, and 6 grandchildren, who lived fairly close, and most of whom are very musical like their parents. An amazing woman of faith! Whilst Michael has been amazingly strong and at peace with everything, I did catch him once or twice discreetly dabbing at the corner of his eye, when Susan was talking or playing.
After a cup of tea back at home, we went out for a walk at Sharon Woods. Whilst our usual trail around the lake is closed, due to the dredging, the gorge trail and fitness trail are still open. It was there that I took the picture of the turning leaves against the blue sky.