With the sure and certain hope of Resurrection.


When my dad passed away in 1999, we were thankful that he had made all the pre-arrangements for himself and for mom before their health began to fail. They lived in Florida, and so, as my two sisters and I met that afternoon at the funeral home in Florida, there was very little we needed to worry about. The funeral home director had made all the arrangements to fly dad's remains to Buffalo for the viewing, the funeral, and the cremation. Dad even had his and mom's urns selected and purchased. And so, since I was the only daughter living in Buffalo, I brought his ashes home - and mom's also when she passed away in 2003. We knew that before we left for our new journey, the ashes would need to be interred in Dad’s family plot of a small cemetery about an hour from my home. Laurie hadn’t been able to get home when Dad died because she was in training, and she also did not return home when mom passed away since she and Stephen were on their honeymoon (I chose not to tell her until they were home), and also the war was looming and they were about to begin their deployment training. When I knew that we could inter Mom and Dad’s ashes while Laurie was home on leave, I asked her if she would like to be present. She said yes- it would be closure for her.
This morning, Ron and I, Laurie and Kasey took the ashes to the cemetery and had them interred. My sister asked me to be the one to do the brief service since she and our other sister both live out of state and couldn't be here to participate. So last night, I wrote a brief service, choosing Scripture and hymns I knew mom and dad would like.
I printed the service out last night on plain white paper, adding a graphic of a cross and a heart, and the words of John 3:16 to the front fold of the service; this morning – in the rain and cold wind of a WNY April morning, we stood before the urns and said our goodbyes. They are finally at rest. There’s an empty corner now on the concrete ledge that goes around our fireplace in the family room; yet with the sure and certain hope of resurrection, I said my earthly goodbyes this morning – knowing that at the time God has pre-ordained me to join them, I will embrace them again. To close the service, we sang The Common Doxology.
Indeed, Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.
Thank you for letting me share.
God bless you and may He bless our troops.