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By Liz Quirin

Two Wakes and a Baby Shower

Looking back at this past weekend, I couldn’t help but think of the 1994 film “Four Weddings and a Funeral” as I made my way from Friday to Sunday afternoon. My weekend could have been called “Two Wakes and a Baby Shower.” It was certainly unusual to attend two wakes in one evening in different parts of the diocese. Both were well attended, and both certainly showed the love the families held for the person who had died.

At one wake, seven brothers and sisters accepted condolences at the death of their mother. Since she loved the color pink, the sisters wore pink flowers on their lapels. One said the brothers would wear pink ties at the funeral to honor their mother.

At the other wake, a father and husband had died. He was a farmer, and anyone who attended the wake would know that. One floral arrangement held a small tractor, and his work boots with a pair of pliers was nestled on the floor next to the casket. It was a quiet tribute to the way he lived his life, a steward of the earth, nurturing it annually to produce the food that would feed many.

His grandson smiled and talked about spending summers with him on the farm, living and loving every minute of the days. Storytelling at both wakes brought smiles and even laughter into what might have been a somber time. It was good for those families and everyone there to remember the person at their best, at times when they were busy living the life God gave them here.

The baby shower was certainly an occasion of joy. The youngest daughter of a wonderfully vibrant 80-something mother, is having a baby. Her smile encircled the room full of her relatives and friends who had gathered to surprise her, share in her joy and bask in her glow. I hadn’t really seen anyone “glow” before, but now I know exactly what people mean when they say someone is glowing.

At 39, she and her husband expect to welcome their son into the world in early June. I don’t know anyone who could be happier, and all of her siblings picked up a bit of her glow. “I’m going to be a grandmother again; imagine that,” her mother said at the shower. Much of the talk centered on how the family had kept the surprise intact for the previous two days. What a joyous afternoon.

All of these events shared two common elements: family and story. People gathered around those who had lost someone and the woman who is poised to become a mother. They all rejoiced in the happiness they shared within their families, retelling stories from other times, and in the case of the soon-to-be mother, of times yet to come.
In joy and in sorrow, surrounded by family, we turn to our God in hope for the days to come.