"Too Soon A Requiem..."

Death takes no holidays. Neither is it a respecter of age, circumstance or station. There is no bargaining for more time to journey forward yet one more step along life's path that had but a short while ago been filled with tasks and plans yet to be fulfilled. The journey ends and the final chapter concludes with a public postscript.

Yesterday afternoon a memorial service was conducted for my employer's 29 year old daughter, Jennifer, who succumbed to her six month battle with brain cancer. From all reports the battle was lost before it really began, so advanced was the cancer when initially detected. So quickly Jennifer was mercilessly transposed from a vibrant and beautiful woman into a mere hollow shell of her former self. Her passing brought the prayed for release from her relentless pain. The enviable had at last arrived and for those left behind there remained relief that the suffering was at an end. But the hearts of her loved ones understandably remained heavy with sorrow at her passing.

I didn't know Jennifer that well. On occasion she would stop by the office in search of her father, usually in need again of his financial assistance to sustain her through yet another personal misstep. As a child she was reported to be happy-go-lucky, tomboyish, and mischievously precocious. As a teen and young adult that latter character trait evolved into rebelliousness and a stubbornness to conform to social norms that lead her down a number of paths for which redemption was repeatedly required. She embraced many varieties of fleeting pleasures that visited strife upon herself and many sleepless nights of anxiety and marital conflict for her parents. She wed and birthed a son. She divorced and abdicated her parental responsibilities. Jennifer's Mother's decision to adopt the child resulted in further fueling her parent's irreconcilable differences and soon there after their eventual divorce. Jennifer's short adult life was one of turmoil and a constant struggle to try and find her way in a world in which she seemed to be in constant conflict.

The memorial service was a tribute to her total life replete with a pictorial slide show that showed her happier, smiling broadly, childhood years and glimpses of her as the truly radiant adult beauty that she was. The minister requested that those wishing to pay personal tribute to Jennifer to come forward to do so. Two did. Both testimonies spoke endearingly of how Jennifer had touched and changed their lives for the better. The many tears being shed in the sanctuary attested that there were more testimonies in the hearts of her many friends that no words at those moments could convey. She was a troubled young lady who was forever searching for personal direction in her life and a joy, which she so obviously and lavishly envoked in others, to no longer be elusive to her.

She's at peace now. Her struggles at an end. Her story written. I pray that the joy and contentment she could not find here on earth is now her's in abundance in heaven, and that even now a new and happier chapter is being written that shall never end.