Saying Goodbye

In a way, it is a follow up to the last post about George H.W. Bush we all know someone who has passed on recently whether our parents’ generation or ours for that matter.

Thursday I went to a funeral of a lady I have known most of my life. I grew up with her daughter and son-in-law. Her daughter we were in Sunday school together.

It was nice to say goodbye to her and see some familiar faces. I found out before the service her brother passed away a couple days ago so the family will be mourning further as well.

I have known friends who have lost both parents in a manner of weeks so losing siblings close in time isn’t surprising either though difficult.

Saying goodbye is for a period of time. We will see each other someday again whether days, weeks, months or years in the next life. This is where hope comes because I do believe this isn’t the end only the time in-between. We will see those we love and known throughout life again.

I find enjoyable at a funeral or memorial service about someone I knew since childhood and they were an adult what they did before having a family.

Her grandfather came to Gig Harbor, Washington right when it was coming alive. He came to Gig Harbor just over one hundred and thirty years ago back in the 1880s. She was born and raised in Gig Harbor. She went to a small schoolhouse which anyone can visit now because it is right next to the Harbor History Museum.

Many of the children of today living get to see and learn about the city of Gig Harbor where she spent most of her life. In the last few years, she moved to eastern Washington into her daughter’s home near the Columbia River because of her health however her heart never left her home of Gig Harbor where she now rests.

It was so good to talk to some of those who gathered at the church before the service. I had to take my mother to a doctor’s appointment we couldn’t change so we had to leave near the end of the service.

I was able to say hello to her family well as next door neighbors and longtime friends. It is amazing something people remember as well. One of her neighbor’s children who I was in school with remembers seeing my family when visiting her grandparents. They lived right next door to us. At one point my grandfather tried to buy their place from them.

Memories keep coming back to time knowing her and the family growing up. I would see her and her sister who passed away within the last couple of years whenever I go to church with my mother. It was no longer my church on a regular basis, however, I went with my mother at Christmas Eve service or soup dinners Wednesday nights during Lent. Those lovely ladies were always there and I would catch up about their lives and the children I knew.

So it isn’t goodbye really it is see you later whenever time it will be.