Last week I attended a funeral. Oddly enough it was a funeral for people I didn’t know well – to be honest most were complete strangers, including the deceased. How did this happen? Well, that is another story. Nevertheless, it gave me a window that I have not gazed through many a time. To be an onlooker here, at this time, was a gift.
Children and Grandchildren went around recounting stories of a life that had weight and meaning. They made this women come to life and the reverberation of her in their hearts was made to echo for us who were listening. They told of love and care, warmth and wonder. Grandchildren told of personal loss and grandparents who filled shoes of an absent father and an overwhelmed mother. One grandson said, “They gave us magic.” I thought, what a thing to say, what a gift.
Magic, to be enchanted so that those things that could have caused a fatal wound did not (being sawed in half comes to mind). Magic, to make something disappear and reappear again. Something did disappear, their tragedies, and reappeared in the form of delight. A sleight of hand, a distraction, loss turned into gain -- “they gave us magic.” I would say that magic feels much like redemption. Redemption is magical. And redemption, like magic, is supernatural, it is mysterious, it’s spellbinding, it is, like grandma, wonderful.
I thank this family for the opportunity to honor a life that was magical.
