A fitting epitaph

So often you hear …. “it takes a village” …

And last week one of the “mamas” from my village died suddenly.

Although she was sick, she was doing well and it came as quite a shock.

I drove straight to the visitation and then got to spend some time with her daughter, my friend Stephanie, and “our gang” Sunday night.  Then Monday I went to her funeral service and headed back to Houston.

The church where we grew up was where her service was held but since the time we’ve left they’ve added screens on either side of the choir loft.  During the service they played a video that the church had recently made that featured Mrs. Nadyne speaking about grace and it was moving and sweet and poignant and perfect.  It felt kind of like she was giving us her last word.

But before the video played they had a church “slide” on both screens.  It had the name of the church and a cross on it.  I kept thinking … “gosh, they should turn that off”.  It’s not that it was distracting but yet it seemed (to me) kind of like advertising.

But the more I thought about it, I was so struck by the tag line that was at the bottom of the screen.

Under “First Baptist Church Little Rock” it read … “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives.”

And I must admit … I could not get over HOW appropriate those words were about Mrs. Nadyne.  She was our church receptionist.  She didn’t live in a mansion or drive a fancy car.   She didn’t travel the globe or write a book.

But she was beloved by so many.   She had a sweet spirit that conveyed she genuinely cared about you.  Not too long ago when we all met up for girls weekend at Stephanie’s house in College Station, Mrs. Nadyne sent pillows and towels.

She wanted to make sure we had enough.

We had plenty but all smiled at the thought of Mrs. Nadyne packing towels and pillows to send across the miles … so we’d be comfortable.

That was her gift.  She made people feel special and loved … in a quiet sort of way.

And that, my friends, made her extraordinary.