What Really Matters – Some Inspiring Words for Us All from a Young Woman’s Memorial Service
What Really Matters
I have worked as a church organist for the past 15 years or so. Over those years, I have played for many, many funerals (or “memorial services”). Most of them for older people I didn’t know well. Some for older people I did know well. And a few for younger people that I didn’t know. Those, of course, are the hardest.
A few years ago I played for the funeral of a young 20-something-year-old man who had just married and had a son with his wife. I played for the couple’s wedding and witnessed the baptism in our church. He had been in school to be a nurse, but was working as a window washer to pay the bills. One day at work he fell from 2 stories directly on his head, right outside a hospital (ironically), but died shortly after.
This past week I played for the funeral of a 39-year-old mom of 2 who died of melanoma. Her kids were ages 15 and 3. Her name was Christina.
One thing you learn from funerals is just how much each of us is loved and that we all touch many other people’s lives, even people we don’t know or don’t know well.
One of the people who spoke about Christina at the funeral was another young woman named Jess who worked as her nurse at the hospital. She had just met the family 3 months ago, but said she’s become so close to them that she now ended phone calls with Christina’s mom with the words “I love you.”
Jess shared some words that touched us all and even made me cry, even though I had never met Christina. She said she speaks to Christina in her prayers and made some promises to her the other night and wanted to share them with everyone. They were from her perspective as a mom, like many of us. I’m sharing them here so others can also be touched by Christina’s life and remember the little things that really matter in life: [Read more…]