A few weeks ago I spoke with a visitor from Nova Scotia. Even though we had never met before it turned out that we had a mutual acquaintance in the person of a long-time Halifax resident, Tommy Sweet. Tommy and his family ran the legendary Diana Sweets restaurant on Spring Garden Road. We agreed that Tommy, one of my Halifax parishioners, was a a great old guy. He always had candy for the kids at the church and he loved talking baseball. Tommy was a huge Yankees fan and attended a number of World Series games over the years. Neither of us knew if he was still alive.
This week I received a note from the visitor with Tommy's obituary enclosed. He saw it in the paper shortly after his return to Nova Scotia. Tommy was 88 and I'm sure he is in Christ's presence, but I still felt a pang of loss. I also have a death notice in the rubble on my desk for another member from another church. A brilliant, fun-loving woman, she was killed in a single car accident. And there is a sticky note from a book returned by a woman from yet another congregation. It is just a few words of thanks from this person who died of cancer in her mid-fifties. I found it months after her death and I just couldn't throw it away. She never missed an opportunity to say an encouraging word.
It may seem morbid to hold on to these things, but these people meant a great deal to me -- still do-- and they were an important part of the richness of Christian communities I have served.
Scripture speaks of the "cloud of witnesses" that surrounds us. I'm grateful for the ones I have known. I feel that I am a better person because of them.
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