Good grief! I’ve often heard that expression when exclaiming over an unusual, surprising or adverse occurrence. Although I had never before this year been a witness to grieving that was “good.”
My great friend’s husband of more than 40 years had a stroke on a Sunday, went into hospice on Tuesday and died on Friday.
She quilted a lovely box for the cremains. She cried some, made hundreds of mementos from paper cranes for the visitors, cried more, wrote the remembrance biography and arranged for the meal. I admired her ability to be stalwart and carry on. I think I’d be a massive crumble of tears and lamentations. But she pointed out it had been a long time coming.
This coming year my husband, my friend and I plan to take a cruise which used to be an occasional event for the four of us. Good grief!
“We voice our sorrow, thanking God for our loved one(s), and trusting in God’s promise at baptism that we are claimed by Christ forever. We rest in the sure hope of our resurrection.” (Adapted from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, 279.)
This message is excerpted from a Women of the ELCA blog by Barbara Miller. You can read it here.
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