Today was two weeks…I find it still hard to fathom that she is really gone. But is she really? Today was a day of trying to get some things prepared for next weeks Memorial Service. I bought one of those tri-fold foam boards to put pictures on, and as I was trying to pick out the right pictures and lay them out… the thought came to my mind…”Is this all that is left of her? These scraps of ink on paper?” I know the answer, but that doesn’t prevent the question from raising itself up in my mind. How can a few scraps of paper do justice to a persons life? The people who see these pictures… what are they going to know of the person they represent? Her spirit, her faith, her struggles, her questions and her love? I have boxes and boxes and boxes of pictures…and yet they cannot tell all the story of the life of this person who shared her life with me for forty years. Up to the end she still laughed at my jokes… I could still make her laugh. That was one of those things that drew us together from the very beginning, laughing together.

And then I received this wonderful copy of the Daily Bread from friends in Iowa, copied from September 12. I laughed out loud when I read the first paragraph… “As I was talking with a gentleman whose wife had died, he shared with me that a friend said to him, ‘I’m sorry you lost your wife.’ His reply? ‘Oh, I haven’t lost her; I know exactly where she is!” YES! YES! YES!!  What a great answer! I love it! Now if I can just remember that one!

The Scripture was from 2 Corinthians 5:8, “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” Kind of like being absent from school…doesn’t mean you do not exist anymore, it just means that for that time period you were not in that location in the school. Maybe you were home, maybe your were on vacation with your family. So I looked it up…”Absent, not present at a place or an occasion.”  OK, I haven’t lost her, she is absent from this place, but I am absent also… I am absent from where she is, in the glories of heaven.

Doesn’t mean I don’t miss her. If your friend is absent from school, you miss them, but you await the time you will be together again. Still, the missing hurts a lot sometimes. I find  myself thinking, “Oh, I need to go share that with Marilou!… Oh, no, I can’t she’s not here.”

Two very special things came in the mail yesterday that just blew me away… still brings tears to my  eyes. One was a card from a dear, dear friend in Minneapolis who is a Messianic Jewish Rabbi. They sent a card saying that a tree was planted in Israel in Marilou’s memory. I can’t keep the tears back on that one. Her dad was Russian Jew, and we never got to Israel. And now there is a tree there in that homeland in  her memory. Thank you Seed of Abraham Congregation… wow.

The other was a card that had two hummingbirds on it that was sent from a friend from Australia (whom I have yet to meet). She saw that card, remembered the story of the hummingbirds here at the house and sent it all the way from Australia! How amazingly thoughtful is that? I was so blown away!

So when it’s all said and done, a persons life is so much more than just ink on paper. We who are here, still have opportunity to make those kinds of impressions and actions that will make a lasting impact on others. We still have time to say, “I love you.” We still have the chance to give that hug, or say, “I forgive” or “I’m sorry.”

Two weeks…I cannot wrap my mind around how long is seems and how short it seems both at the same time. What will it be like when it is two months, then two years?  I guess I’ll have to let you know. But just  remember… I haven’t lost my wife, I know exactly where she is!!