December 16th, Advent Day 20
Advent is the season in which we anticipate the celebration of the birth of the Savior. At that celebration and indeed at the celebration of Thanksgiving, we have a time in which families and friends gather together; a homecoming, if you will.
So many of us at Emmanuel have come here from other places. We have come for family, for employment, for retirement, or in association with Bragg. This is now our home and Emmanuel is at the heart of our home. I continue to be amazed at the number of small world connections that I have had with fellow parishioners whose past locations have intersected with my own experiences. Indeed I wrote a lengthy article about those connections in a 2018 issue of Reflections. One connection that I did not include then is very much in my mind now, thinking about a dear soul who will NOT be with us for Advent/Homecoming this year.
On May 25th we lost a long-time member of our Emmanuel Choir, Lucinda Boyd. For as long as I have been in the choir, I felt a special bond with Lucinda. Our ages are not unsimilar and our views of society and the world around us have been very much in sync. Over the last year and a half or so, you might have observed that bond in action as at Communion time, I waited at the bottom of the choir loft stairs to extend a steadying hand to Lucinda as she always waited to be the last down the steps so as not to hold up anyone else’s decent. Early in our relationship, we discovered that Lucinda’s childhood home was a very, very small farming community in west-central Illinois called Table Grove, population 363. My Anne is from Augusta, Illinois, population 605 and but 36 miles southwest of Table Grove. Nothing but corn and soybeans between. Anne and I use one lane county roads from Augusta to route US136 going to and coming from North Carolina. That has taken us directly to and through Table Grove many, many times. Lucinda was born at McDonough District Hospital in Macomb, IL, and the wife of Anne’s nephew is a PA there today. Small world, indeed.
I will sorely miss Lucinda’s presence in this time of coming together, and she will be in my prayers throughout the Advent season.