Dear Family& Friends

They're putting in new rugs in the room where Carol left us today. The name plate will be different. I have Carol's name plate on the back of my door where son Jim placed it. There it will remain until I join her in the Heavenly Residence.

At our Men's Club meeting this morning I was asked to give prayer in appreciation of Mary Alpert, who died last night. She and Carol, along with others Carol knew well, have recently died.

There is a scripture that says: "In the midst of life we are in Death."

As you well know "the moment we are born we begin to die." This is my Physical Closure on Colorado, and Carol's earthly life:

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To be in Colorado last September with all my children, many grandchildren and two great grandchildren, did something deep inside me that I, as yet, can’t fully appropriate nor appreciate.

I rejoice in the mental images and memories that are stamped in my mind. Even in my dreams I feel the memories coming to the surface, and I revel in them: A score of relatives: Three great grandparents, Grandparents, parents, Uncles, Aunts, etc. all watching Harper Lee & Cullen Frederick as they walked and wobbled at the center of all our attention. They climbed up into chairs, walked back and forth, fell and got up, and played with the gifts and toys. They were constantly circulating and moving about, looking with big shining eyes at all the folks watching them and taking their pictures.

To celebrate one’s first birthday(9-21-01) with a cousin only a few month older,(2-6-01) has all kinds of significance.

“To walk,” after all, is one of life’s greatest achievements and blessings. Where I live now in a Retirement Community, is to notice every day, literally scores of men & women who can no longer navigate without little 4 wheeled carts.

I tried to visualize where these two Great grandchildren will walk. How much of the Globe will they tread on before they die? Already, they are so eager for life. They are like sponges -- every day they absorb so much. Every moment when they are not sleeping they are constantly moving about. Their Computer is working diligently, storing experiences.

Why do they prefer pans and bowls to toys...? Why all the noise and chattering...? Do they understand each other...? Piaget, the great French student of Human nature said, “Children think they are thinking with their mouths.” Their beautiful eyes are filled with Wonder.

Every one of us during the two Parties, I noticed, handled and held the children in our arms. As a Minister I had dedicated each of them-- one on the Seashore of a California Easter Sunday morning, and the other in Portland Oregon in a grove of majestic trees. Using water from the Ocean, the birthplace of all life, I christened-dedicated them “to the Christ-like life, The worship of God and the Service of their Fellow-pilgrims on this Planet”

Many times in the past 65 years it’s been my joy to have parents, while still under the awe and mystery of cooperating with the Creative Force, do this. Throughout human history, symbolizing the wonder, joy and miracle of co-creatorship, parents Grandparents and families in all of the Religions have participated in such experiences. Likewise, congregations and gatherings of communities, have similarly promised to help in providing an environment and opportunities for the child’s complete maturing in a holistic, worthwhile life. Scriptures & words often used in my ministry were: “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind, heart and soul and thy neighbor as thyself." Jesus said “Let the little children come unto me and forbid them not...Except you become as little children you shall not enter the Kingdom of Love...They will live in a world that you cannot enter even in your highest thoughts... You are the Vessel from which new life springs & blossoms....Rejoice in your Being blessed by this the greatest of gifts and challenges: ‘generation to generation” we live, invest ourselves... and die.”

Both great grandchildren with their parents & relatives were present at the top of Pikes Peak(14,000,12 feet) when, at the Elk Creek Bristlecone Pine tree area, we placed in the ground beneath the trees Great Grandmother Carol’s ashes -- Each child going to a different tree in meditative silence. My, how we all have loved the mountains! We embraced one another with tears and joy knowing we had celebrated her life as she wished. There’s nothing quite like the joys of Family Love...’generaton to generation...”

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