Brother Bob and Sister Bim

This is the second sibling that I have lost since coming to Pass Christian. My sister Bernice (Bim) died just two days after I arrived on Jan, 2006. Bim along with my dad took on much of the responsibility for raising our family of seven after my mother died when I was just nine years old. She gave up her high school and college years to care for me (not an easy task) and my six siblings..

Brother Bob took over in my college years and though plagued with tuberculosis was my role model and mentor and in many ways responsible for me getting through college. His funeral is today, at this hour.

As with my sister I will not be attending the funeral. . . . Not an easy decision to make. Yet in many ways I think I have felt closer to them from this distance and in this place than I would have had I been physically present at the memorial service. I feel it is possible in the quietness of this place to reflect on the memories of our years together and to go even beyond that and experience a spiritual connection I did not know was possible.

Maybe it is this place. Surrounded by unbelievable destruction of property and the shattering of lives and families, on one hand, and the unconditional love and compassion acted out on the other . . . I can only marvel at the depths people are willing to journey to provide a glimmer of hope.

I know there are other religions or groups capable of achieving this level of love and compassion, but for now I sense the purest form of Christianity that I have known.. That spirit is truly contagious. In my short time here I have witnessed volunteers venturing from tiny First United Methodist Church of Pass Christian, MS into somoene elses home and world and emerge with the conviction that the spirit is being passed along.