BurialThen there was

Let's hope I can write on this strange keyboard at the end of a tiring day.

I told Mom that I felt like today was two different days. There was this afternoon when we went to the campus of Oklahoma City University and picked up Jaran's cap and gown. A delightful meal at Cimmaron Steakhouse and ideas for stories.

Then there was this morning. The burial of Jolene's ashes.

Jaran, John, Nerinda, Mom and I met at a beautiful cemetery this morning. As Jaran said, with pine cones and bird song and all the beautiful things of nature Jolene loved. It's a lovely, peaceful spot, and the pink-streaked marble vault struck just the right now.


Mom read 1 Thess 4, about the dead in Christ rising first at His return, and Revelation 22, about Jesus' wiping away our tears. John read from the story of Lazarus (John 11). Nerinda said that Mary (the mother of Jesus) knows my pain. We sang 3 hymnns, crying through the words of Oh, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus, Be Still My Soul, and It Is Well With My Soul. Mom and I cried and said final goodbyes over the vault. We watched the laborer place the vault into a hole in the ground and shovel the dirt into it.

We cried buckets, and screamed at the heavens for the wrongness of saying goodbye so soon. And rejoiced that she is with the One Who Loves Her Best and First, beyond faith and hope and secure in knowledge.

And we left her to rest, and turned a corner. Thanks for your prayer.