The Rev. Cynthia L. Danals on honoring the strangers who cross our paths

Eulogy: Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken

A short while ago, I had the honor of eulogizing a woman I’d known for only four days. She was a client of the newly established Crossroads Hospice of Northeast Ohio. After I met her, I joined her eldest daughter in the living room. I asked her about her mother’s life, and after she’d told me a few stories she asked, “Do you do funerals?”

“Yes,” I said. As a parish pastor and hospital chaplain with ten years’ experience, I’d officiated at more funerals than I could count.

“Can you eulogize my mother?”

The name of a hymn occurred to me – Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken. I realized that, even though I had never seen Moses, the prophets, or Jesus Christ, I know them, and I’d made a career of telling people all about them.

I accepted her invitation to write this eulogy.

Thus began a thoughtful process of getting to know this woman, her death at home, and the family she’d raised who had then taken care of her. When she died, I had a meeting with the family to share feelings, anecdotes, traditions and history.

As the family members and friends talked about this woman, the core of her virtue emerged. She had a helping gift. She was good hearted. She had a sense of humor. She was generous. She had lived well and loved well.

At her calling hours and at her funeral, glorious things of her were spoken, and they were all true. Those who attended expressed their sadness at her passing and their appreciation for her life among them. It was a farewell tribute to one who was much loved.

After the celebration was over, I drove back to my hospice office. In the midst of a gloomy sky, a single ray of sunlight pierced a Cleveland cloud and warmed my dashboard. That was the dearly departed, expressing her joy. I beamed back at her, and we shared a moment of warmth.

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