December 21:
Funeral Sermon - Janice M. Gonyeau
DOB: 3/25/1953 DOD: 12/7/2013 DOMS: 12/21/2013
The writer of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes put it this way:
"For every thing there is a season
And a time for every matter under heaven."
The writer than goes on to list pairs of events
Each pair containing two "connected opposites"
Like weeping and laughter
Like mourning and dancing
But he begins with
"A time to be born And a time to die"
Well, Janice was born twenty days after Easter in 1953
And she died eighteen days before Christmas sixty years later.
But, although it is her death, that seems to bring us here
And although our pain, loss, and grief over her death
seem to be our dominant emotions,
In actuality, It is what she did and how she lived
Between her time to be born and her time to die
That really bring us here
And it is the love that we felt
Between those times
That is really our dominant emotion.
For without that love - for and from - her
We would not be in pain
We would not be feeling our loss
We would not be grieving and mourning.
And so we come here today
To celebrate and give thanks for
the life of the woman in that Australian Outback hat
and for the fact that we had the honor of having
the time between our births and our deaths
intersect and intertwine with
the time between her birth and her death.
Sixty years seems an inadequate amount of time
for God to share Janice with us
But it is more than four times as long
As some doctors said we would have her.
For when Janice was 10 or 11
She was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes
And the doctors told Norma and Ed
That she would most likely not make it to 15.
The tenacity that we have all witnessed in Janice's life
Was present way back then
She went to a school in Boston, learned how to take care of herself
And then made good use of the knowledge.
She did such a good job that
Combined with the improvements in treatment
Another doctor later predicted that she might make it to 35.
And so, amidst our grief,
We celebrate that she had 45 more years than the original doctor thought
And that she had 25 more years than the second said she would have.
I am one of those who would not have had the joy of spending time with her
If either of those doctors had been right.
We celebrate too, the joy that she gave to - and received from -
Her animals.
To her homing pigeons and chickens
to her dogs, some of whom weighed as much or more
than Janice
And of course to her horse
Which she rescued from a truck on its way
to Canada where it was to be slaughtered.
But she cared about people as well.
Janice was never well off
Her housing expenses took more than half of her disability check
But she was generous
Helping family and friends
Even when it meant going without herself.
She could be stubborn
But she loved to laugh
When she first got her prosthesis
She went to Bill's to ride
And once he was satisfied that she was stable
He let her go on ahead
And the her new leg (which had a button on the inside)
Came lose and hung in the stirrup
Bill screamed
All Janice could do was laugh.
Janice holds a special place in my time as pastor here
For on November 25, 2007, a few months after I arrived
she became the first person other than my wife and son
Whom I received as a member of this congregation.
Janice faced more challenges in her life
Than most of us ever will
But her attitude toward those challenges
set an example for all of us.
Her willingness to laugh rather than complain
Her generosity to others despite limited economic means
Her faith in God even with all the problems she faced
Should be an example to all of us.
I have to believe that when Christ came to get her two weeks ago,
He told her that she reminded Him of the widow in Luke's gospel [Luke 21: 1-4]
Janice didn't have much
But like the widow in the story
She gave from - not from abundance, but from what she had to live on.
With the example she set for the rest of us,
It is no wonder that this is a time to grieve and mourn our loss
But too, with the example she set for the rest of us
It is no wonder that this is a time for us to celebrate
And as part of that celebration
That this is also a time to give thanks to God
That she was - and I think, will remain - a part of our lives.