When I jog, I love to run through cemeteries, and sometimes I stop to read the headstones. I saw one on Cape Cod recently at the grave of a man who died at twenty-eight – so young! The message read, "His life taught us how to live, his death, how to die." That's what ought to be on every headstone – I'd say this boy accomplished whatever he needed to accomplish in twenty-eight years. Now, other people had on their headstones that they went to Yale or Harvard, that they were lawyers or manufacturers. But I don't think God cares where we were graduated or what we did for a living. God wants to know who we are. Discovering this is the work of the soul – it is our true life's work. As a matter of fact, over God's desk are two plaques. One says, "God forgets everything you remember and God remembers everything you forgot." And the other says, "Don't feel totally, eternally, irrevocably responsible for everything. That's my job. – God."
From Bernie Siegel, MD, Love: The Work of the Soul, from Handbook for the Soul, pages 43-44,
Recently Macy's fellow 4Th grade classmate lost his mom. His mom, Sue, was such a beautiful person.
She was a year ahead of me in high school. I loved her obituary....it did not say she was a cheerleader and on the homecoming court and dated the captain of the football team and had a big-ass house. It did not talk about her grade point average or her college degree..her volunteer positions. It did not talk about what religion or political party she followed....It instead talked about her love. That is what she was about... read her obituary below and see what I mean. She will be remembered for her hugs and her love not her posessions or positions. She was all about Love.
Peace and love to you, Michele
I like to read the wisdom of the words on some stones and also notice the egotistical craziness of some people's last words. What would you share with the world with your last breath and what words do you want on your headstone? (bernie wrote this too.)
Suzanne Hughes Green
Suzanne Hughes Green, 42, passed away Friday, Jan. 26, 2007.
She was born Feb. 11, 1964, in Bryn Mawr, Pa., to William H. Hughes and Nancy Berry Hughes.
Sue left us all with countless gifts. At her very core she was unconditionally kind and loving. She greeted us all with a bearish hug. If still for any length of time, you were at risk for another one. Even recently, while under significant physical distress, Sue would lift her arms to greet each of us like it was for the first time. Her kindness was magically partnered with her passion, intellect, commitment and grace under fire. She was loving yet courageously strong. After three years of living with her illness, we never once heard a complaint. All of this was a gift to us.
More than anything, Sue loved her family, another gift. Children were at the center of her universe. Some of our favorite memories of Sue will be of her with a room full of kids — hers and others'. She had a self-actualized glow in their presence. They, in turn, looked at her with rapt attention, soaking up whatever she was offering that day. Her three kids will deeply miss her, but they will be repeatedly reminded that a lot of her lives in each one of them. You see it in their eyes and feel it in their soul.
Sue recently received a letter from a friend that touched her very much. In it, the friend said: "You, Sue, are all we hope our kids to become." No truer words were ever spoken.
Sue, we miss you already. We miss those hugs, those heavenly cookies, the little chocolate turkey on our plate at Thanksgiving, your dutiful laughing at our bad humor, your soft pat on our back when things weren't going as we expected, your support in the face of adversity and your understanding when we didn't even understand ourselves.
We would like to unconditionally thank all of you who reached out to us during this difficult time. Sometimes that was with a ride for the kids, food for the family, direct care given for Sue or even a rotten joke trying to cheer us up. Those were also gifts to us.
Mrs. Green will be deeply missed by the countless people whose lives she has touched. She leaves behind her husband, Tracy; her wonderful children, Ryan Fitzgerald, Halley Berry and Jack Carter Green; father, William Hughes; brothers, Glendon (Brenda) Hughes; stepbrothers, Charles (Erina) Calder, James (Karen) Calder and Davis (Ann) Calder; father-in-law, Paul C. Green; brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Kelly and Vicki Green; sister-in-law, Ann Calder; nephews, Jon, K.C., Matt, Judah and Jim; and nieces, Samantha, Margaret, Kathryn, Jane, Ellie, Tori and Hannah.
She was preceded in death by her mother, Nancy Berry Hughes; stepmother, Susan Calder Hughes; and mother-in-law, Patricia B. Green.
Service: 11 a.m. Tuesday at United Church of Christ Congregational, 217 E. Liberty St., Medina. The Rev. Sharon Kiesel will officiate.
Burial: Medina Center Cemetery.
Visiting hours: 2 to 4 and 6 to 9 p.m. today at Waite & Son Funeral Homes, Medina Chapel, 765 N. Court St.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Cleve-land Clinic Foundation, Horvitz Center for Palliative Care, P.O. Box 931517, Cleveland, 44193-1655.
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