Some good and some bad news. A buddy of mine from college became a grandfather for the second time yesterday at 07.30 EST. He now has a grandson, in addition to a 2 year old granddaughter. This guy’s a trombonist. I sent him a crack on Facebook saying I suspect and smell a new trombonist in the air .
The bad news: a former coworker of mine at Follett School Solutions (fka Follett Software), who left the company shortly after I left in 1991 to become a pastor, lost his wife of 25 years on Saturday. She had been in a vegetative state for almost the last 4 years. Her funeral is Wednesday. I will not be attending, for obvious reasons (He, and his congregation are in the far Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, and I’m living 50 miles north of Baltimore. (Ironically, this guy was from Baltimore.) I also didn’t know him that well.) i’ve Already sent my condolences by quoting parts of the funeral liturgy from the Lutheran Service Book (and, if could have found a decent recording of it, the Prayer of St. Simeon (aka the Nunc Dimitiis) that is part of the Russian Orthodox tradition, as well as the Russian Orthodox Hymn Salvation is created, that is part of the Liturgy of St. John Chrystostom.)