The Gray Monk

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July 07, 2004

The World turns on .....

FROM THE GRAY MONK:

Today is the day that my father-in-law died four years ago of cancer. He was a very special man and a wonderful human being. He was also a very Christian man in the sense that his faith was his life and his life his faith right to the end. The world is definitely a poorer place for his passing, yet, for those who had the privilege of knowing him, he is with us still, for he has left his mark on us all, and he has made us all the better for it.

Eight months before he died, I lost my mother, largely through poor health, but certainly also due to the negligence and indifference of the National Health Service who took her in for surgery and then failed to spot that she had caught the MRSA infection, making no effort to treat it. She, too, was a special person, not least because she was my mother, but also because she, too, was passionate about her family and her friends. She, like Gill, had a strong sense of values and tried to live by them.

As the world turns on, we all grow older and hopefully wiser. As we age we also change, some of us for the better and some maybe just never take aboard the lessons they should be learning from the world around them. Gill and my Mum both have had a large influence on my development as a person; indeed, it would be true to say that I am a mosaic of many people who have had a hand in molding my character over the last 50+ years, some for the better and some as examples of how not to be or grow. I would hope that I have turned out well and measure up to the yardstick of my own faith and attempts to emulate the Christian life. Of one thing I am sure, without Gill, without my Mum, and others who have made a positive impact on me over the years, I would not be the person I am today.

Their passing is also a reminder that I have a duty to try to leave the world a better place, to try to show the generations now following me that there is a path of decency, of faith, and of joy in the glory of God and His creation. That love can and does overcome all other trials and tribulations - even the idiocy of those who see no virtue in Christian values or belief. I hope that the next generation will see me as positively as I remember those before me. We cannot move forward while looking back, but we can move ahead while taking our precious lessons and memories with us. Gill and my Mum are with us no more in the flesh; they go with us now in the spirit and in our hearts, alongside all their friends and acquaintances who, with them, have shown us the way.

May they all rest in peace and rise in glory at Christ's call.

TGM

Posted by The Gray Monk at July 7, 2004 10:57 AM

Comments

Posted by: Russell Newquist at July 7, 2004 09:46 PM

Posted by: matthew frayne at August 2, 2004 12:49 PM