This Wasn’t the Plan

It isn’t everyday that one has the opportunity to speak at a funeral, but today was one of those opportunities for me. She was a lady I’d only met once and that was as she lay dying in a nursing home. Her husband is a crotchety old guy with years of military experience. The night his wife died, we sat in his front room and he told me stories of his past. They were married just 25 years ago this month.

Just before I got up on the platform to speak, some friends of mine walked in the back with their two-day old newborn daughter. I asked them if I could take their daughter on the stage with me and they agreed. So there I stood in front of about 100 people with a little pink-bundled and perfect baby girl.

I talked about the cycle of life and how we are born perfect, innocent, and full of potential. I spoke of the joy parents exude when their children are born and how death is so far from everyone’s mind. Death is not the way it is supposed to be – we were not created to experience death, we were created to experience life.

It was a unique opportunity, to stand on stage at a funeral with a newborn baby in my arms. I shall not easily forget this moment – and I think that will be true for others too.

Interestingly, it has been just two years since my bother and I spoke for my Mom’s funeral. It wasn’t meant to be this way.