Miss You

You know sometimes when you rush through a day you tend to miss things? Well that was me yesterday morning. I crawled out of bed late (Jonty was still in it!) realised what the time was and then started chasing everyone to get to church on time (which was necessary as Jonty was preaching). We had a mad morning dash and made it on time. Jonty was up front doing his thing, Lucy was in Sunday School and Lil's & I were up the back of the church doing creche sorts of things. When... the rector started to read out a list of names, eight in all. Eight members of our congregation had died over the last week. That's when I looked up and noticed a whole pew was empty in our church!
I turned to my friend and asked did I hear Joan's name. She confirmed I had. Joan was my favourite of the 'blue rinse brigade', my cheeky cockney granny who always had a nice word to say about everyone, would talk to Lucy not at her, and just always knew what to say to pick you up when you felt lousy. I have to admit I didn't hear much of Jonty's sermon, because I was thinking about the hole Joan would leave in our congregation. All that elderly wisdom and love. Gone. It's so hard not to dwell on your sorrow when a christian dies, because they've done their bit for the kingdom. But it hurts so much. Miss you Joan.