Unfolding Soul Prints

Yesterday I had the honor of being a part of one of the greatest funerals I've ever experienced. I was a little hesitant about it in the beginning. It was for a 72 year old woman that I had only met once. A lady in our church invited her to join us for our Christmas Eve service. We chatted for a long time afterwards and she told me with great energy and passion how much she loved the service. I went to her home twice, but was never able to catch her at home, so I left notes, a visitor's packet, and even a church cookbook. She passed away last week, as an only child she had no brothers or sisters, she had buried three husbands and had no children. Her friend had agreed several years earlier to take care of her funeral and be executor of her will. When she asked me to officiate the funeral she explained that it would be an AA funeral. I wasn't quite sure what that meant, but I knew that I was to keep my remarks to a minimum, and go light on the amount of Scripture. I decided that my prayer would talk about remembering, celebrating and grieving, and that I would reference the creation narrative where God said that it wasn't good to be alone. I shared that because I was a person of faith and a minister of the gospel that I believed the the God who knitted her together in her mother's womb was the same God who held her hand and kept her company as she took her last breath. I talked about the family she had in AA, and in her female pilot's club (the 99ers) and with her colleagues and students in the various schools where she taught math. I then invited her "family" to share. I was amazed that for a woman who had no children, siblings, or inlaws....The room was packed. One by one people stood to tell how she had touched their lives. The retold stories and remembered meals shared and lessons learned. There was talk about her love for music, cats, flying, water skiing, motorcycles, and people. There were students who had her as a teacher 47 years earlier and when they saw her obituary in they paper, they had to come. I sat in awe as I listened to what was shared about this amazing woman, and I left wishing that every funeral I participated in could be like that one. I left inspired to live a life that can truly be celebrated in the end.