Today we said goodbye to a friend.
Truthfully, as the pastor said, we did not really say good
bye, only realizing that we will meet again someday in a world far better than
the one we inhabit. The service was not only brilliantly and beautifully
coordinated, it was indicative of a meaningful life well lived. There were men,
women, children, people of all ages and all walks of life gathered to celebrate
a life that, despite enduring chronic physical pain, was always about serving
others. Darla had the kind of spirit which made you forget she was in pain –
every; single; day.
I shared with her husband a couple of stories that remind me
of what it was about Darla which had touched the lives of so many people.
I did not know Darla as long as many of those in attendance;
some of whom had known her for an entire lifetime. Friends from birth with
always a connection even if separated for years at a time as often happens with
the passage of life phases that create our own daily drama. Despite having only
known her for those three years in high school, what I remembered, and shared
with Tom, is that Darla was always just a caring and generous person. There was
not a mean-spirited bone in her body and I do not believe I ever heard her
utter a single negative comment toward anyone. I had come to Churchill High
School two weeks into our sophomore year. I was nervous and somewhat shy
(imagine that). I had difficulty blending into a school where so many of the
classmates had known each other since kindergarten.
To be fair, those were my difficulties; my responsibility.
Darla, though, would go out of her way to be pleasant with a smile and soft ‘hi’
in the halls. There was no obligation to greet the new kid; the outcast; and
yet that is just the way she treated others. The Golden Rule seemed a natural
for Darla. You could even call it ‘Darla’s rule.’
After graduation, I went off to the Marine Corps and lost
contact with most of the graduating class save for a select few friends. It was
the advent of Facebook and reunions which altered a reality and reinvigorated
my own personal belief in a class of students who have become a piece of my
heart and soul. These were the people who shared in my pains, my joys, my
heartbreaks. All of those things which entail being a high school student were
not experienced alone. We may have felt alone and unique in those moments, but
we were all the same. Raging hormones creating confused kids trying to wind
their way through a crazy world to become adults. Each one of the students at
our school was a piece of our soul, put there to create the men and women we
would become.
With the ability to reconnect with so many friends from
school, it was wonderful to get to know Darla again as an adult. The thing that
has stuck out the most for me is the other memory I shared with Tom today.
About a year ago, when Robin Williams committed suicide, I wrote a piece called
‘The Tortured Soul’ about the pain inside the minds of those who shoot through
this world like a meteor, leaving a trail of beauty behind, gone far too soon.
After sharing the work with the Churchill Class of 84 Facebook page, Darla,
oblivious to her own needs, took the time to not only thank me personally, but
to share a piece of herself which I did not know. Her encouragement in the face
of her own pain was awe-inspiring. I wish I had the kind of heart and soul as
Darla. If only every person had the kind, compassionate, caring nature which
she has always displayed, the world would be a perfect place to live.
I guess, though, that we will have to wait for heaven to
experience that joy. Something tells me Darla will be there at the gates waiting
to welcome us all.

Email: sreed3939@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottreedauthor
Twitter: @DuckSports
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