1/28/18

Gathering Graces 1/27/2018

*Around 8 a.m., Bill picked me up at the house, and we drove to Moscow to attend the funeral of Amy Bird.  The Bird family were family friends when they lived in Kellogg, and we have kept close to their son Kenton Bird, who is the same age as Bill.  Cosette’s first work study job at the University of Idaho was working in Kenton’s office, and so she knows him pretty well, too, so she also attended the funeral service with us.  Christy had planned to attend, but was unable to come at the last minute.  But she did spend some time writing a beautiful passage on her blog today about grief and losing loved one called The Shed Notebook: Saying Goodbye Over and Over.  You can read it here.
*I love Episcopalian funeral services.  I love the words, the way they are set up, and how they honor the person and the Christian faith.  (I often joke that I think in a previous life, I bet I was Episcopalian.  I always feel at home whenever I attend a service in an Episcopalian church).  The music was beautiful, the words were beautiful, the homily was beautiful.  It was also special to go to the altar for communion and break bread next to our former neighbor Marcia Morgan Jacobs.  Marcia and her husband Doug Jacobs are members of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Moscow. 
*I remember visiting Amy Bird with Mom occasionally when the lived in a house on the road from Kellogg to Smelterville by the Bunker Hill Smelter.  I am not sure why we would stop and visit, but I remember their house, and remember stopping to visit.  One thing that stood out to me as stories were shared about Amy was the fact that she broke a barrier by becoming the first woman on the Kellogg School District school board. 
*Another story from the service I loved was why the particular passage from Ruth was used as the Old Testament reading.  Her husband Bob used these verses because Amy had grown up in a small community church in Washington.  The first time she attended a Midnight Mass Christmas Eve service at the Episcopal Church, she told Bob she new this is where she belonged, and she felt like home.  As it says in Ruth 1:1-17, “Thy people shall be my people”. 
*During the reception I visited with Mary Kay McFadden.  Mary Kay was in the Tri Delt sorority when Christy lived there, and when I lived there, she was one of our alumni advisors.  We had a wonderful talk and she came up with some connections of people Cosette to call about possibly looking into a job after she graduates in May.  It was a really fun conversation.  I also spoke briefly with Marcia and Doug, and Kenton’s wife Gerri Sayler.
*After the reception Bill, Cosette and I met Molly and Travis at Bucers in downtown Moscow.  This is one of my favorite places, because they serve a certain coffee drink called a Cordadito that I LOVE!!  I was surprised by a wonderful wooden wall hanging Travis made for Paul and I for our home that he has been working on for the past month.  I love it, and love he crafted it with his own hands.  We also gave Travis his birthday present a couple weeks early.
*Bill and I were on the road by 2 p.m., and I enjoyed our conversation about a variety of topics.  We made it home safe and sound, and I spent most of my evening knitting and watching Friends.

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