Rites of Passage

 

Last week was busy. We had two Rites of Passage, also known as Graduation. Will graduated from Middle School and will be going on to Strait Jesuit High School.

Jack graduated from Strait Jesuit and will be going to Rhodes College in the Fall. As you can see Mike and Betsy are proud of their two boys. Me too. I am so glad I could be here with them for these ceremonies. They were beautiful and  solemn with music, prayers and processions. The older I get the more I realize the importance of these public gatherings to mark the end of one part of a life to the next adventure.

Another Rite of Passage that our family celebrated was a memorial service for Katherine Mercer Stanford, our Aunt Kackie. Kackie has been the glue that held the Mercer family together. From the minute she met me, she loved me as if I had been born a Mercer instead of marrying into the family. She never forgot a birthday. She always called or sent a card or maybe both. She kept up with everyone in the family. I could call her right up to the end to ask about anyone in the family and she had probably talked to them recently and knew where everyone was living and how all the children were. Kackie was 94 years old but up until the last week of her life she lived in her little house and had recently renewed her driver's license so she could go to church, the doctor's office and the grocery store.

Last summer when I went to see her, she wanted me to come for lunch but I knew she would go to the store and make a huge lunch for us even though she wasn't feeling very well. I told her that I couldn't come until after lunch but when I got there she had made cookies for me. I don't think she ever went anywhere without taking along some food. Even this past Christmas she insisted on bringing a cake to the family Christmas Dinner.

One of my favorite verses of scripture is in Proverbs 31:10-31. I like it best in the old King James version because it is so poetic. I hope you will read the whole passage because it is truly a description of this beautiful, kind woman. She was a woman of simple means who touched so many lives and was loved by all.  "Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies."