You know that The Old Fool is a widower for less then a year. Between last Christmas and New Years Day, 2012, was the last full week that he and his beloved wife, Rhoda, were together. They were happy days.
Knowing that the holidays are often difficult for bereaved persons, Yoder Culp Funeral Home and College Mennonite Church each offered The Old Fool a grief support class. He joined both. They run simultaneously, sometimes meeting on the same day.
Participants are pledged to confidentiality. We do not tell each other’s stories outside the group. But the Old Fool may tell you his own story. For one class he sang a song that Rhoda and he sang repeatedly on our way to Tampa, Florida, in 1950. The song expressed the simple faith with which we traveled to an unkown future. Click this link to find it I will not be afraid
In the other class we were led in a study of Psalms of Lament in the Bible. Then we were given a few minutes to write our own lament. The Old Fool wrote on the spur of the moment:
O Wind Eternal, you blew by and Rhoda was gone
O Wind Eternal, we were here. You came by, and she is gone, and I am here alone
O Wind Eternal, you said it is not good to be alone, and I am here alone.
O Wind Eternal, you and I agree, it is not good to be alone
You may find staying awake a helpful meditation/video.
In the next post the Old Fool will continue his attempt to retell Genesis 1. Happy Thanksgiving Day!
