A young, much-beloved girl in our parish died in a car crash a few years ago. We were all shocked and grief-stricken. What a lively young lady she was! She had dimples that could charm anybody.

She had let someone know what music she would want "if anything ever happened" to her. So to everyone's amazement, at her funeral home service, out from the speakers came the unmistakable opening riffs of "Spirit in the Sky." People were physocally galvanized with the surprise-- I was sitting behind them all and saw a lot of backs go stiff-- but the song gdid its trick. By the middle of it-- and it was LOUD-- people were chair-dancing more than a little bit, and grinning to each other even as the tears streamed down their faces.

By the time everyone came over to the church for an after-service lunch visit, it was all joyful sharing of memories. People still talk about that song choice, as they remember her.

What we remember is how her smile lit up anywhere she went-- and how she is still infecting us with the gift of that smile every time we think of her song. I mean, you have to know that people here tend to be very reserved, proper, and composed, and her family had a lot of older friends, pillars of the community, and so forth, who came to be with them for the occasion.

She.... she made us better for having cared for her.

~Susan