I had such a nice chat with Doggie before he moved to DuBois; he thanked me for a passage I'd sent him years before. And every time I use the cake slicer with Mann's Esso Station written on it, I smile.
This is the passage I sent him when his wife passed:
A WORD OF CONSOLATION ~ If a tiny Baby could think, it would be afraid of birth. To leave the only world It has ever known would seem a kind of death. But immediately after birth the child would find Itself in loving arms, showered with affection & cared for at every moment. Surely the Baby would say, "I was foolish to doubt God's plan for me. This is a Beautiful Life." For the Christian, passing through death is really a birth into a new & better World. Those who are left behind should not grieve as if there was no hope. Life is changed, not taken away. Our Dear Ones live on, in a world beautiful beyond anything we can imagine. They await a day when they will welcome us with joy. "Do not grieve too much, they would say to us. We are living & still with you." For those who have been faithful, O Lord, Life is not ended, but merely changed. And when this home is no more, an eternal dwelling place awaits them in Heaven.
I will always remember when Don (Doggie) had the gas station that used to be up the street from St. Francis School where the pizza place now is. I enjoyed going there despite the fact the nuns didn't allow us off school grounds. They say you are never dead as long as someone remembers you and I will remember Don.
