With Gratitude for Deacon Melissa Wafer-Cross

In a meditation on the passages of life, Noela N. Evans writes, “The stage of my life has changed; old doors are closed and new ones stand open.” After David’s death last fall, I began to think about that new door that now stands open; there are two little boys who stand in the door waiting for me. They love baseball and swimming and ice cream and Pokémon and superheroes; I decided I don’t want to miss sharing their lives on a day-to-day basis. If I’ve learned or relearned anything in the last few months, it’s that life is fragile.

So, against “conventional wisdom,” I’m moving to Santa Rosa, California. Sorting through forty-six years of marriage and thirty-three years in our current house is and has been a daunting task. His stuff, my stuff, inherited stuff, family stuff, stuff I didn’t even remember—how do I know what to donate, throw away, pack, leave behind? Evans reminds me to look at what I choose to take to a new space to make it mine, to call it home. The memories and the pieces of my life in Lubbock that travel to California will become the heart and soul of my next home. Then, I will embrace the challenges and opportunities that this move invites into my life.

Every day, I give thanks for the blessings of your steadfast friendship through the years; through joy and sorrow, you, my friends, have been present. Know I love you and will miss you.

Melissa