random thoughts – Day 2,173 (Friday) – better choices

There was a plan to attend a funeral with Mom this morning but she was feeling poorly and sounded like someone sandpapered her throat so she stayed home with her germs and I went without her. The church parking lot is small and the car ahead of me nabbed the last open parking slot that wasn’t designated for handicap tags, and at that moment I was a little bit glad it was a solo endeavor.

The most recent snow storm on top of an already busy and never-ending snow season meant that snowbanks narrowing the streets were plentiful and spaces for safely parking vehicles were less available. No lie, I circled the neighborhood looking and hoping for a spot for 20-minutes, and then a spot opened on the street right outside my destination. Sometimes it just takes a full tank of gas and a dose of stubbornness to achieve the goal. Luckily, I had arrived at the church a half-hour before the service was to start. It did occur to me that had I just been 31 minutes early, I might have been the lucky winner of that final spot in the church lot, but it all worked out and I had a nice tour of the neighborhood and probably confused some residents as I passed their homes a million times.

Rollstone
Congregational
Church.

The Celebration of Life was in a Gothic-style Congregational church with a clock tower, and a sanctuary with columns, arches, beautiful wood, stained glass windows, a massive pipe organ, and velvet cushions on the wooden pews. It looked and felt a lot like the church I grew up in, located a mile down the street, which was comforting.

The service and remembrances captured the spirit and personality of my friend’s father, who Mom and I knew from our old church. That church was faced with mounting expenses and declining membership and sold its building and dissolved in 2018. 

One of my favorite hymns was part of the service (“Lord of the Dance”, a 1963 arrangement of a 19^th Century Shaker Tune). Despite not attending church services in years, I remembered a decent number of the words. Seriously, if school lessons had been set to music when I was in school, I would have retained a lot more useful information.

Also in the service was the 23^rd Psalm of David, which, around age 8 or 9, I was enamored with. I wrote it out on a piece of notebook paper and taped it to the wall near my bed and I would read it each night with the intent of memorizing it. I don’t remember what prompted me to do that, but I did some random stuff as a kid. Mummu probably told me it was her favorite. I still remember most of the words now, but in the olden English version with “maketh” instead of “makes,” “leadeth” instead of “leads,” and “restoreth” instead of “restores,” etc. Luckily, I checked the text printed in the service program and I didn’t tip my old English hand with the “-eth” stuff when it was recited in unison today.

Several high school classmates/friends were in attendance and we had a chance to catch up in the fellowship hall after the service. The delicious catering featured great coffee and healthy food options that included fresh garden salad. The choices made today were better for my health and spiritual well-being than many choices of recent days/months/years.

Rest in peace Mr. Goguen. Your daughter organized a beautiful celebration of your life.