A death in the family

It's now one year since we interred my mum's ashes in the churchyard of St Mary's Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex. It snowed that day and a few hardy villagers came to help us with the task. Today we learnt of the death of another Essex girl, Jade Goodey. I'll not be the first or the last to write about her. I was remembering the hymn by Dora Greenwell 'And art thou come with us to dwell' in which we sing

Thou bringest all again; with Thee
Is light, is space, is breadth and room
For each thing fair, beloved, and free
To have its hour of life and bloom.

I was also thinking of Madge Saunders, who's funeral was held yesterday in Kingston. I found a new photograph of her on another site in which it says she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.



This morning I heard about another well remembered woman. Constance had been a member of Waverley URC until her death in 1994. She had made a small embroidered cross that Harry, my informant, still carries in his pocket. He told me the story today. I hope to find out more about her in the next few weeks.




There's nothing else quite like a death in the family. We need our stories to nudge us further into life even when movement seems impossible. This week's entry in the URC Prayer handbook [still available from http://www.urc.org.uk]/ includes the story of Tony, a builder who built a business on pumpkin finance, a good thing to consider in these credit crunch days. The prayer for today on page 29 reads




Draw us to you,
God of all,
that in our dying
and our living
we may bring
glory and honour
to your name
as we seek to serve you
with integrity.

[copyright Janet Lees, for the 2009 URC Prayer Handbook 'Hush the Storm']