Euology

Eulogy

These past few days there's been an outpouring of sentiment on our loss of mikelom which took his family and many of us by total surprise. Mike's site profile expressed cheerful hope of complete recovery "After nearly a year of serious illness, and many operations..." Have you ever been asked to compose the eulogy for a family member or close friend? When your own eulogy is written, how will the narrative read?

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
[b]Eulogy

These past few days there's been an outpouring of sentiment on our loss of mikelom which took his family and many of us by total surprise. Mike's site profile expressed cheerful hope of complete recovery "After nearly a year of serious illness, and many operations..." Have you ever been asked to compose the eulogy for a family member or close friend? When your own eulogy is written, how will the narrative read?[/b]

Originally posted by divegeester
Nice idea for a thread; would share how you think yours would read to kick us off?

"An Open Letter to Our Respective Families and Close Friends". In Remembrance: There is "A time to weep... a time to mourn." (Ecclesiastes 3:4) God has given us this time to cradle our grief over the loss of someone we love who has departed this world. While Evelyn's departure leaves large craters on the twin islands of our respective families' lives, it is for us to take advantage of this time to mourn by remembering her in a meaningful way. This Memorial Service is a sacred ceremony of affection, infused with dignity and significance. It transcends mere words of praise. We have also come together to honor Evelyn by celebrating the gentle dimensions of her life..."

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
Let's take the two questions in sequence with " Have you ever been asked to compose the eulogy for a family member or close friend?" first. Yes, I wrote the eulogy for my wife Evelyn while still in California; it was delivered by my sister Janet on January 25, 2003, at a church in Massachusetts.

Originally posted by divegeester
I thought you OP was referring to what posters here thought their own eulogy would be. Do you care to kick off by sharing what you think yours would be like?

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
Originally posted by Grampy Bobby (OP)
[b]Eulogy

"These past few days there's been an outpouring of sentiment on our loss of mikelom which took his family and many of us by total surprise. Mike's site profile expressed cheerful hope of complete recovery "After nearly a year of serious illness, and many operations..." Have you ever bee ...[text shortened]... amily member or close friend? When your own eulogy is written, how will the narrative read?"[/b]

Originally posted by divegeester
I have never been asked to compile a eulogy.

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
Okay. The privilege may also one day be yours. I'll continue with Evelyn's eulogy if and when additional interest in the thread occurs.

Originally posted by divegeester
I made a 20 minute speech at my fathers funeral, is that the same thing?

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
Absolutely! Would you be able to remember the key statements of your "20 minute speech"?

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
Eulogy

These past few days there's been an outpouring of sentiment on our loss of mikelom which took his family and many of us by total surprise. Mike's site profile expressed cheerful hope of complete recovery "After nearly a year of serious illness, and many operations..." Have you ever been asked to compose the eulogy for a family member or close friend? When your own eulogy is written, how will the narrative read?

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
"When your own eulogy is written, how will the narrative read?" (OP) Mine will probably be written by one of my younger brothers or sister; its first paragraph will begin with an obituary (giving dates and place of birth and death). Then comments on my early childhood and teenage years in a small town west of Boston, Massachusetts. Speculating on the na ...[text shortened]... or speech given on behalf of a family member or close friend. I'll then resume Evelyn's eulogy.

Originally posted by divegeester
Hi GB just to be clear as I have already engaged in this thread; I have no objection to you sharing personal information of the nature you are posting, but I won't be doing the same, certainly not the detail. Some people feel this forum should not be about personal information.

I would be prepared to write my own eulogy but I think I would have to make ...[text shortened]... ould not be able to resist trashing anything resembling honesty. Not complaining just explaining. 🙂

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
Let's take the two questions in sequence with " Have you ever been asked to compose the eulogy for a family member or close friend?" first. Yes, I wrote the eulogy for my wife Evelyn while still in California; it was delivered by my sister Janet on January 25, 2003, at a church in Massachusetts. Here's its beginning paragraph:

"An Open Letter to Our ...[text shortened]... have also come together to honor Evelyn by celebrating the gentle dimensions of her life..."

"We have also come together to honor Evelyn by celebrating the gentle dimensions of her life. It was the unselfish life of an elegant lady who understood sacrifice. It was the generous life of a true friend, who was quick to forgive and who poured out her forgiveness like a wine. It was also the incredibly focused life of a pilgrim soul with a personal sense of destiny, which achieved spiritual victory over fear and dying and death. Evelyn made advance preparation for eternity.

It is my hope that your heartache and loneliness and sorrow may begin to fade as you more fully realize that Evelyn's soul, in an interim body as described in John 14:1-3 and Revelation 21:4, is now safe and secure and enjoying a happiness surpassing anything she knew in this lifetime. It is also my hope that this letter may prove to be a source of comfort; and that it may complement your own appreciation of the exquisite and lasting fragrance of her memory..."

"The room at Guinea Station where Lt. General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson died. Sunday, May 10, 1863.
Click here to see a brief video of this room (large file).

"On Sunday May 10, 1863, in the bed pictured above, Confederate Lieutenant General Thomas Jonathan Jackson passed from this earth. A devoutly religious man, when notified that he had not long to live, Jackson replied, "It is the Lord's Day. My wish is fulfilled. I have always desired to die on Sunday." His personal physician, Dr. Hunter McGuire, noted his final words. "A few moments before he died he cried out in his delirium, 'Order A.P. Hill to prepare for action! Pass the infantry to the front rapidly! Tell Major Hawks' -- then stopped, leaving the sentence unfinished. Presently a smile of ineffable sweetness spread itself over his pale face, and he said quietly, and with an expression, as if of relief, 'Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees."

Captain James Power Smith who "all night long" kept his General "warmly wrapped and undisturbed in his sleep" would also later write: "And here, against our hopes, notwithstanding the skill and care of wise and watchful surgeons, attended day and night by wife and friends, amid the prayers and tears of all the Southern land, thinking not of himself, but of the cause he loved, and for the troops who had followed him so well and given him so great a name, our chief sank, day by day, with symptoms of pneumonia and some pains of pleurisy, until, 3:15 P.M. on the quiet of the Sabbath afternoon, May 10th, 1863, he raised himself from his bed, saying, " No, no, let us pass over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees"; and, falling again to his pillow, he passed away, over the river, where, in a land where warfare is not known or feared, he rests forever 'under the trees.'"

Chancellorsville Jackson Monument Inscription: "He rests forever under the trees." http://brotherswar.com/Chancellorsville-7.htm

Notes: Included on the final page of my wife's eulogy. What had Jackson to fear? Nothing. He was going home to be with someone he loved.