Saturday, October 13, 2007

More about grief and how it affects a child's life, a child's growth....this week in the hospice room at one of our local hospitals, another friend died. Sixty-six years old, retired one year, he had been diagnosed with cancer from head to foot about 2 weeks ago. He, mercifully, died quickly. As his priest, his wife, friends and family gathered around his now lifeless body and finished praying, someone said it seemed they sort of needed music of some kind....whereupon the 4 year old grandson in the next room....who was playing, who had no idea what this was all about(?)....began to sing in his best 4 year old voice, "Amazing grace, amazing grace, amazing grace, how sweet the sound".....they're listening, they're learning, shielded or not shielded....May God Bless our friend Truman's soul and the lives of his family who now must accept and live with their loss.
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3 comments:

  1. Kayce aka lucy11:28 AM

    yes, they are listening. for some reason the song "calling all angels" by jane siberry is running through my head.

    i imagine the priest was our dear father steve? i am so sorry for the amount of death and grief that is so present for you both these days. i guess, however, that death and grief are all around each of us when we open our eyes to see...the good news is that i believe the same to be true of joy and life.

    much love to you!

    (and now i see why you were blogging in the middle of the night.)

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  2. Kayce aka lucy11:35 AM

    o.k. so here are the words to "calling all angels" if you are not familiar with the song, i highly recommend downloading it on i-tunes.

    Santa Maria, Santa Teresa, Santa Anna, Santa Susannah
    Santa Cecilia, Santa Copelia, Santa Domenica, Mary Angelica
    Frater Achad, Frater Pietro, Julianus, Petronilla
    Santa, Santos, Miroslaw, Vladimir
    and all the rest

    a man is placed upon the steps, a baby cries
    and high above the church bells start to ring
    and as the heaviness the body oh the heaviness settles in
    somewhere you can hear a mother sing

    then it's one foot then the other as you step out onto the road
    how much weight? how much weight?
    then it's how long? and how far?
    and how many times before it's too late?

    calling all angels
    calling all angels
    walk me through this one
    don't leave me alone
    calling all angels
    calling all angels
    we're cryin' and we're hurtin'
    and we're not sure why...

    and every day you gaze upon the sunset
    with such love and intensity
    it's almost...it's almost as if
    if you could only crack the code
    then you'd finally understand what this all means

    but if you could...do you think you would
    trade in all the pain and suffering?
    ah, but then you'd miss
    the beauty of the light upon this earth
    and the sweetness of the leaving

    calling all angels
    calling all angels
    walk me through this one
    don't leave me alone
    callin' all angels
    callin' all angels
    we're tryin'
    we're hopin'
    we're hurtin'
    we're lovin'
    we're cryin'
    we're callin'
    'cause we're not sure how this goes

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  3. Dianna Woolley5:30 PM

    Lucy,

    Thank you so much for the comment and kind thoughts. I definitely agree about the awareness and sorrow of death and dying; fortunately, I believe also, that the true joy of living may be recognized and appreciated more clearly because of those moments of grief.

    Thanks for sending "Callin' all angels" - I seem to remember that from one of your posts.

    I was wondering how you knew I was posting in the middle of the night - I never noticed the time stamp before!

    I want you to know that I don't plan to make a habit of midnight posting:)

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