If you read these blogposts regularly, you’ll note there were no posts in September. It wasn’t that I had nothing to offer or that I reprioritized or procrastinated or was distracted—well, I suppose that last possibility is closest to the truth.

During September, these blogposts were simply forgotten, pushed out of mind by two deaths and the aftermath of loss. During September I delivered two eulogies in two weekends.

On September 16^th I delivered a eulogy on behalf of my dear friend J as we celebrated the life of his wife A, who was lost suddenly in an auto accident on the evening of August 24^th. I spoke of A’s creativity, love of summer, and her faith in her Maker. My wife did not attend the service with me so she could be with her parents. Her father, in the midst of a long-term illness, had taken a turn just days before. 

At the end of A’s service, I walked out into the beautiful late-summer afternoon and got in my car to follow the hearse to the gravesite. I picked up my phone from the console and saw a text from my wife. Her father had passed thirty minutes prior.

On September 24^th, I delivered a eulogy for LB, my father-in-law. I spoke of his love of Charles Dickens, his interest in WW2, and read a quote from C.S. Lewis as we reflected on his faith in Christ and the life he is now experiencing.

If you read these blogposts regularly, you’ll note there were no posts in September. I wanted to offer a reason for my absence, and in the process place here a brief remembrance of these two lives circumstantially linked in the end.