Aging with Grace

I went to another funeral this week. I’ve been thinking about how repetitive they are becoming. I guess we people of 70+ years of life behind us are going to see a decrease in our contemporaries. Those of us with Christian beliefs hold on to the promise of continued life for our friends and family. However, our loss still requires our mourning and, hopefully, additional understanding for our future.

There was a large attendance at church, a recognition of the number of friends my friend had in life and those who will remember him the rest of their lives. Lots and lots of stories were told and I suspect that went on at the reception which followed.

During the service, I remembered a story I heard from this friend. This man once told me he had a vacation home in North Carolina. The story was interesting because it dealt with a television actor who was extremely well known from a show from the 1960’s. He told me that a nearby property was owned by Andy Griffith, sheriff of Mayberry fame. He had a number of visits with Andy over the years. My friend told me that Andy was extremely down-to-earth and friendly, confirming something I had heard before.

Many people said the same thing about my friend – that he was friendly and down-to-earth. Not a poor send-off for my friend… one that I am sure that I will remember for years to come. I thought it amazing how one can remember one little story for years,  but can’t remember what he had for breakfast.  

This funeral once more taught me the importance of understanding living a compassionate and generous life. Perhaps you do not have the means to age into a philanthropist, but you have your stories. During the week before the funeral I visited a 90+ years-old friend who I had not seen in a number of months. The friend admitted he did not recognize me when I called him, but the face-to-face contact brought his remembrance of our friendship. I guess he okayed my request to visit because he wanted to interface with someone who is interested in just sitting across from him. He told me a number of stories, most all of them I had heard previously. I still laugh at the stories he intends to be funny, even when they are not.

My faith-based life has allowed me to have friends and the opportunity to visit them frequently. Some say this is a wonderful gesture and thank me. I hope the people I see do appreciate my visits but to tell the truth, I get more out of these meetings that my friends. At the very least, I pick up a few interesting stories.

I wish each of you a life of fellowship and peace with others.