Abundant Life

Jane got the last laugh!  She entered the church triumphant on April 1, 1998 after courageously fighting a battle with cancer.   She loved life and lived it to the fullest.  She could balance a spoon on her nose, tell funny jokes, make others laugh, and she could light up any room with her infectious smile and storytelling ability.  Jane could laugh at herself with she did something stupid.  She made strangers feel like friends and was always willing to entertain and share a Cheerwine and popcorn with anybody who stopped by house.  She loved to give gifts and let people “shop” in her Avon closet.  She always had a song on her heart and played the piano with skill and grace.  Above all else she loved Jesus and freely shared his love with all.

The doctors called our family to come to the hospital.  Treatments were no longer effective and there was nothing else they could do.  They said it was the end and that we should come.  I drove to the hospital with some dear friends that night with a sad heart and was greeted by Jane hosting a party in her hospital room.  There was singing.  There were snacks.  There were prayers and there were tears.  “I guess we are all here waiting for me to die,” she said.  She later asked my mom, “What did you pack to wear to my funeral?”  The life of the party was looking death square in the face with love, light and laughter.   Jane lived several months after that night and we all experienced the pain of multiple goodbyes as we watched a person with so much life try desperately to hold onto to the abundance of this life.  We talk about the pain and sorrows of this world and Jane knew those full well, and yet she loved life, she loved her church, she loved her friends, and she loved this world.  In her heart, she knew the best was yet to come and yet for her it couldn’t get much better as she fully lived each day.

Jane was like a second mother figure to me.  I was her only niece and the “apple of her eye.”  We had so much fun together and I have so many wonderful memories of travels, adventures, shopping, and bedtime stories.  Her life and death profoundly impacted my call to ministry.  I learned how to live, how to follow Jesus, and how to face death.  There are so many days I long to sit and talk with my Aunt Jane.  She had attended a seminary and experienced a call to ministry.  Her denomination did not ordain women, but actively lived out her call in the life of the church.  As I live out my call to ordained ministry, I also live out Jane’s calling.  I am able to stand in pulpits and boldly proclaim God’s word in places the church said she could not go.

April Fool’s Day will always remind me of Jane.  She did have the last laugh as she made her passage from one side of eternity to the next.  Her life and her laugh live on both in my heart, in my life, and in my child Mattie Jane (who by the way is the only person in our household who can balance a spoon on her nose).