Memorial Service

This morning at the nursing home we will be holding a memorial service for a friend who was killed tragical given by her friend who felt it was just wrong to not help her be laid to rest,if only in our minds and hearts.
Last night after Adult Education I stopped at Big Y,the local grocery store,and picked up some pasty for after the service.This morning I took out my nurse cap sitting in it clear glass case,to bring with me,see the deceased was an RN and in the fire everything was lost.
I plan on setting up a table with some small snapshots of her,getting some flowers or plants together and putting my cap on the table in remembrance of her life,cut short.
Services are really for the living not the dead.The dead have moved on to hopefully bigger and better but the living need to say goodbye and come to some sort of peace be it of mind or heart and if lucky maybe both.
When St.Francis of Assisi was dying he asked to be stripped naked because he wanted to die owning nothing,just has Jesus had,but the head fairer said "Bother I order you to wear my garment since it is borrowed you will still own nothing." and so he died on the ground in a borrowed robe.
So I guess this service is also a borrow,since we do not have her body or any of her personal belongings.We will remember her with the things we allow her to borrow from us and in the end that's kind of a special thing.