Ecclesiastes 3
On behalf of Ann, Chris and the rest of the family, I'd like to welcome
you very much to this service today.
When people reach the ripe old age of 88 it often happens that those who
come to their funeral seem like a select gathering, as they tend to have
outlived their contemporaries somewhat.
But in a sense we can count it as a privilege that we are here to
represent for Gwen all those many people who throughout the rich tapestry of
her life she has befriended, been to school with, partied with, served in the
shop and been a neighbour to. Together
we can ensure that Gwen's funeral is one which does justice to the length and
breadth of her life.
So, today we give thanks to God for
Gwen, for the time she had with us, and the way in which she lived. We give thanks and we salute her for her
determination and courage. I've been
thinking about the picture of their
mother that Chris and Ann painted in my mind, and it seems to me that these two
words that stick out most of all are these: courage and determination. Gwen lived her life, and faced the
challenges that it brought to her, in the knowledge that everything has its
time. In the spirit of the reading from
the Bible, she had the wisdom to take things as they came, and the quiet
strength to deal with the demands of her life.
Chris said, "She was always in charge of what she did." If you want evidence of this, look at a
woman whose first bathroom in her marriage was a converted hayloft in Newport
Street! I don't think many people would
like that nowadays! Or a woman who,
while her husband Ken went away in the war for the best part of eight years,
single-handedly ran a business and brought up her daughter. She had the determination to make a good
marriage. I was amazed to learn from
Chris that for forty to fifty years Ken and Gwen were up at 4 a.m. sorting out the newspaper rounds from their
shop, and at one time were delivering to 2000 homes. They often wouldn't finish working till nine in the evening, and
scarcely ever could take a family holiday.
They ate, drank, slept, worked and lived together. Dtermination, courage, an ease with the
rhythms of everyday life which built a special marriage. But Gwen also had the strength to face 21
years of being a widow in which she maintained her independence and right up to
her final weeks, as her health deteriorated, she was determined to stay in her
own home as long as she could.
It's no secret that her final few years were difficult for her, as life
became more difficult physically. She
knew that her life was reaching its natural end, and that, just as there had
been a time to work and parent and do all the other things she had achieved,
there was a time to die. She had the
courage to face up to that as well. And
so for those of us who will miss her, it's perhaps right that we can mourn her
with the knowledge that everything has its proper time. Yes, there is a time to mourn, and I'm sure
that over the coming weeks, months and years, that will happen in various
ways. But there is also a time for
gratitude, for fond memories, and for trust in the fittingness of our seasons
of life and death.
One way of honouring Gwen, is to consider ourselves and our own
times. How can our lives be different
because of what Gwen's life has meant?
She gave a gift to us in her strength, determination and courage. Perhaps our gift to her can be to live with
the same vigour and purpose. And the
death of someone close to us also calls us to consider the ultimate meaning of
the time we have been given, and the fact that there is for us, too, a time be
born and a time to die. "I know
I've got to die," says Woody Allen, "I just don't want to be there
when it happens!" But this is a
time for us to face with courage the questions of why we are here in the first
place. In many ways, they are too big
for us to grasp. But Gwen and Ken were
used to selling news, and we are here today in this place, using these words,
because there is good news to be read.
The headlines go like this: "Death is Defeated!" "A New, Fuller Future!" "Exclusive: Nothing can separate us from the love of God!" I don't want to have a go at journalists,
but unlike most writers, the Jesus who has written these headlines across the
pages of our "Times" has written the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth. It's because of
him that we can have the courage and determination to face our grief, our
lives, and even our death with the trust and quiet strength which we have seen
in Gwen's own life.