Something popped up on television a couple days ago which caught me totally unprepared. And for the life of me, I don’t know what that something was now. But whatever the scene or scenario, it brought tears to my eyes, and an involuntary sob rose in my throat, and caused me to think of a distant cousin; whom I never had the opportunity or privilege of meeting. Past tense … since my dear cousin Molly Hightower has gone on to her well-deserved reward.
Molly was a resident of Washington State
and a graduate of The University of Portland; having triple majored in French,
Sociology and Psychology. And it seems this dear young lady had a heart at big
as all outdoors, and that magnificent heart compelled her to serve the small,
and poor and vulnerable among us.
As a result, my dear relative made a
decision to volunteer with an organization known as “Friends of the Orphans,” and
was approved to serve on the island of Hispaniola, and the country of Haiti. It
was here that she lent her great heart, and willing hands to the proverbial
girding of self, and washing of feet of the poorest among the poor.
Until…
that momentous day of January 12, 2010
when that great earthquake, of which we are all so familiar, struck that island
nation, and not only cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of native
Haitians, but stole Molly from our sight, and deprived her of her mission.
And of all the thoughts and emotions I
have in regard to Molly’s passing, the foremost among them has to be the
absolute unfairness and prematurity of it all.
Dozens of photographs remain to us, and
without exception each and every one depict a young lady upon whose countenance
was the most ethereal glow, and a smile which would have lit up this or any
other universe. And I think part and parcel of that glow was that sense of duty
and responsibility; which compelled her to a cause greater than herself.
And I am immediately struck with the incongruity
of it all, and the numerical contrast of the multiplied years which have been
granted to me, and the several events which might just have easily taken me
from this world, but in which and through which I was granted another breath,
and another opportunity to serve.
There is a scene in the movie, “Saving
Private Ryan” in which a dying “Captain Miller” admonishes “Private Ryan” to
make his life count for something. Anything. And with the last dying syllables
which would ever grace his tongue, he whispers the words,
“Earn this.”
“Earn it.”
I think Molly lived her life that way.
She could not have been unaware or naïve concerning those countless bright-eyed
visionaries of the Faith, and of the Mission who preceded her, and of which she
was a burnished link in a long chain of them who did their duty as God gave
them to see the light, and did not shun any base task to which they were appointed.
I so often think of the countless myriad
of lesser folks who are taken up with the common, and sometimes ignominious
things of life, and who live out long lives with little meaning, and sometimes
disrepute. And who are summarily afforded the same sure fate to which Molly
succumbed; but who die unhappily and unfulfilled amongst the linen of their own
beds.
Rest in Peace, dear Molly.
God grant you fruit for your labors, and
raise up persons like yourself who will take up the mantle which has fallen
from your shoulders, and continue that unfinished work to which you so nobly
advanced.
By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 25. Copyright pending
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By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 25. Copyright pending
If you wish to copy, share or save this blog, please include the credit line, above
***************
If you would like to see the titles and access hundreds of my blogs from 2015, do the following:
Click on 2015 in the index to the right of this blog. When my December 31st blog, "The Shot Must Choose You" appears, click on the title. All my 2015 blog titles will come up in the index
NOTE: **If you are viewing this blog with a Google server/subscription, you may note numerous underlined words in blue. I have no control over this "malady." If you click on the underlined words, you will be redirected to an advertisement sponsored by Google. I would suggest you avoid doing so.
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