Service of Remembrance and Support

Tomorrow is St. James, Higganum service of Remembrance and support. It is to remind people that the Christmas Season is not a time of joy and wonder for people who have lost someone they love to death.

I'll preach and I'm going to talk about my father, who never, ever got over the death of my mother.

On the way to the cemetery. when I was in my 20's, he said to the undertaker (though I know they don't like that term--they want to be referred to as 'mortians', or something like that) "I now how nothing to live for". Which was odd because I was right there beside him.

But it was true. The rest of his life--some 15 years or more--was meaningless to him.

Deaths often do that much damage.

So a moment to remember the pain of losing someone you love in this time of endless carols and Christmas decorations and being implored to be joyous, makes the season not what it's made up to be.

Tomorrow at 6:30 pm, we'll acknowledge that.

That's a good thing to do.

Really.

Let people who don't 'celebrate' the season because of their pain express that.