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Death and Joy

Two blogs in one day!!!!  That must be a record.  There's a reason for this though.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go visit an old friend - Bill Howitt.  
Bill was one of those truly amazing individuals from my past.  Garrison Keillor talks about Norwegian bachelor farmers.  Well Bill was not Norwegian, but he was a bachelor farmer.


I met Bill as a young Pastor...First Congregational Church in Randolph had all of 30 people in it when I began...Bill was one of them. 
He was a quiet man...I never heard him once raise his voice beyond normal conversation.  He was a gentle man...when gentlemen seem to be lost in our world today.  
I never did figure out why he didn't marry; except for the fact that he didn't ask people for anything, so perhaps, he just couldn't ask a woman to go out?  
We met together for several years one on one - at his country house, for breakfast...he would cook it for me.  Coffee, eggs, toast, bacon, juice, potatoes...it was always bountiful.
We would talk...or should I say I would ask Bill questions...about life, about anything I could get him to talk about...I saw him as a Father figure, a spiritual mentor...someone who walked the talk and I wanted what he had.


Recently, I was told that he was in hospice care at the Manor in Randolph...so I drove over, and I got the opportunity to stop by and visit.  He was verbally unresponsive; but not in his body and soul.  He had had a stroke recently and it left him largely immobile and without the ability to speak.


I saw a couple of hints of a smile and he more than once he tried to move his hand/arm as I held onto his hand.  There was a man and woman there who I didn't know, but who were relatives and had been taking turns keeping vigil over him, so they prompted me to just talk to him...I did.

I told him that I had pleasant memories of breakfasts with him at his home.  That he had been a quiet faithful friend and support to me as a young Pastor.  

I told him that it looked like he was going to make to heaven before me, and that I would look forward to seeing him someday soon.  

I got those faint smiles and hand tugs during all of this.

I prayed for him...for grace in dying, for peace and rest in his body, for the love of Christ to envelope him...and I left, telling him I'd stop by again today.

No need to do so.  Bill went home to Jesus at 3 a.m. this morning.  He was 92!


Dance away my friend, dance away in the freedom of Christ!

"Don't we know our lives are but a vapor, here for a minute and then vanishing away".


Peace

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