Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Ivan and Adam

Yesterday was a strange morning. When I woke up, one of the first thoughts that traveled through my brain was, "Two of my friends will pass away today."

No, I'm not psychic. It's just that two of my friends were in "end of life care," and I knew that one of them was expected to pass from this world to the next yesterday. My thought was, "How strange it would be if they both departed on the same day."

Ivan was an elderly man with Parkinson's. Adam was in his mid-twenties when he succumbed to cancer.

Ivan was my pastor when I was a child. I met Adam when he was on staff at Camp Fairhaven, and I was the Bible teacher there. Two very different men, and yet they both, in their own way, touched my life.

I remember Ivan taking me and my older brother on a little excursion to Portland when we were children. Why? I'm not entirely sure, but I think it was because he found out that we (being the rural country bumpkins that we were) had never visited the jetport and stood in front of the big glass windows to watch the jets take off. So he took part of a day to spend with us in "the city."

What I most remember of Adam is this: whenever I arrived at Camp Fairhaven, I could count on getting an enormous bear hug from him. And if you've ever met Adam, you understand that the phrase "bear hug" is quite fitting for this very large man with a very large heart.

It's interesting that for both of them what I remember best is not the words they spoke, but their actions toward me.

Rest safely, my friends, in the heavenly country where you are, at last, home.

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