In memory...

One of our friends, Alison Kline, lost her battle with cancer tonight. She was 27 years old. Her husband, Tom, worked with Scott in the MALS here in Beaufort, and they had just moved to Indiana to do recruiting closer to home earlier this year. Even though Alison has been sick for a long time, she was always up for a good time. We had lots of fun times at "coffees" and other events. She was an incredibly talented woman who fabric-painted onesies for Diana's baby gift. She was a very kind, graceful woman and she will be sorely missed by us all. Please keep Tom and her family in your prayers as they mourn the loss of such a wonderful lady.

Below is a poem that Tom posted on his blog. I think it's a beautiful way to think about death. I know that Alison has been warmly and gladly welcomed into her eternal home, even as we have bid her farewell from her earthly home.


I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white
sails to the morning breeze and starts
for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until at length
she hangs like a speck of white cloud
just where the sea and sky come
to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says;
"There, she is gone!"

"Gone where?"
Gone from my sight. That is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull
and spar as she was when she left my side
and she is just as able to bear her
load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone
at my side says, "There, she is gone!"
There are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout;
"Here she comes!"

And that is dying.

-Henry VanDyke