Fully Alive!!

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"What will life look like in the future?" (Georgia's last blog.)  Sunday morning our Sister, Rose Marie Conway, may have been wondering the same. She knew she was living with cancer for the past couple of years.

And she was living!   She planned time to connect with each person she met or had known. She would sit quietly with  a friend enjoying the beauty of a park or kayaking on Madison's lakes.  "I love you," she would say to each duck or bird on those excursions. And she put up her hands and blessed the water. " I love you," sparkled in her eyes as she greeted me or others. She participated fully in each gathering of sisters.

On Sunday morning she was called to truly see future life. She died as she had lived with a peaceful smile on her lips.  Those of us who live in Madison gathered by her bed to pray with and for her. The picture that Sister Isabel had taken of Rose blessing the water was placed on the bed where Rose's body still lie.  When the funeral people arrived to take the body for cremation, we stood around the gurney and prayed again and then sent her forth singing, "Go now in peace faithful friend of God as you take our love into paradise".

Sunday morning as I stood with the others I had to ponder what it is to live fully as we say in our vow "even unto death".  How will you and I live our lives fully this day?  How, indeed, even unto death?

Joan Duerst, OP

Monona, WI

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