Celebrations and Reconnections

   

Char's church of 60+ years

Al read Isaiah 40:28-31 Hope!

Char--a loyal U of M fan

  Our recent visit to Michigan was all about celebrations. We got to cheer for our daughter, Shanda, as she won a difficult USTA tennis match, and helped celebrate grandson Nate’s fifth birthday, Star Wars style. 

    Al and I also attended a different sort of celebration, a beautiful service which honored the life of his mother, Charlotte Lowery, who passed away last May. There were many opportunities at the service to reconnect with family and friends, some of whom we hadn’t seen for several years.

     As the family filed out of the sanctuary after the service, a young woman looked at me from her place in the pew and smiled. I recognized her as a friend of Char’s, who was a waitress at a nearby restaurant—a place where we had gone with Char many times.

     She and “Little Jenny,” as Char called her formed a strong bond of friendship over the years. Jenny would sometimes pick her up from her apartment and take her for a ride. They would drive around Royal Oak in Jenny’s convertible with the top down and Jenny’s big St. Bernard dog in the back seat. Char would throw up her hands and laugh as her hair blew in the wind.

     Unfortunately, after Char moved from her apartment they lost contact. Char never stopped mentioning Jenny, often talking about their fun times together. “When I was with her, I felt like a girl again,” she would tell us. So whenever Al and I had the opportunity to eat at that restaurant, we’d always ask about Jenny, hoping to have the chance to meet her.

     Last summer, we decided to stop by the restaurant while on another visit to Michigan.

    “Does a ‘Jenny’ work here?” I asked the young woman who came to our table, hoping that maybe this time we could find her.

    “Well, yes, there are two Jennies who work here,” she responded.

    “Our mom, Char Lowery, was friends with a waitress whom she called ‘Little Jenny.’ ” I said. The look on her face was priceless.

    “Oh I’m little Jenny,” she cried. “Is your mother still alive? I loved her!” We told her that she was still living and that she was at a retirement home in a nearby suburb of Detroit.

     “Can I sit down?” Jenny asked. I gave her my napkin so that she could wipe her eyes. She lingered on at the table for a few minutes more.

    “Well, I’m going to see her when I can,” she promised. Jenny kept her word and did visit Char, much to our mother’s great delight.

     On the day of Char’s service, she told me that she was so happy they found each other again before Charlotte passed away and thanked me for reconnecting them. Jenny and I parted with hugs, exchanging addresses and feeling like family. “Keep in touch,” I told her. She was a sweet, sweet young lady. Char would have smiled! 

     I love the way God works. Sometimes He answers prayers that have never been uttered, desires that were deep down in our hearts; and oftentimes He surprises us. How great is His love!

     Thank you, dear Father, for reunions, for family getting reacquainted, for new friends and old, for bonds strengthened and confirmed. What a glorious reunion we will have in heaven someday! We look forward to that with great hope and expectation. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

     “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” John 14:1-3 NIV

(published in the Porterville Recorder July 2014)