Monday 1 October 2018

Remembering What is True


This past month I lost a friend, well I haven’t lost her, I know where she is…Heaven has gained a gift.

My friend was so beautiful inside and on the outside, in her youth and also in those last days.  She was beautiful in the words she shared; in her wisdom…almost everything she said was well measured and her responses were felt and properly weighed.  She asked hard questions but always with good intentions. Her comments often reminded me not to forget to remember what was true.  God gave her grace and joy. 

And she was very brave.

I can’t think of a time that she complained, true or false, good or bad, hard or sad; everything was as it should be.  She was aware of her illness and the path that was being carved before her but she didn’t run from it, rather she took it all in…she wanted to live but she was prepared to go.

She was very brave.

She used these days of trouble to rest, to dream and to plan…planning her steps ahead but also resting in the life she lived, the life that God gave her, a beautiful life well lived.  She wanted everyone to know how wonderful God is.  So she planned how her story would be told…to let everyone know that she lived.

She was very brave.

But, she was also filled with joy, she wanted laughter…she said let them laugh and really she wanted dancing.  I loved knowing that. She was far from wild on the outside but her inside was full of adventure and daring, a modest rebel. One of her dreams as a young woman was to be a race car driver…

She was very brave.

As we watched her day by day, slipping away…we were only half there, our hearts were already elsewhere, with her as she stepped out of that race car of death and danced out on that sweet journey home.

Elfrieda, remembering what is true… a brave rebel who lived a beautiful life.


I love that.