FUNERAL OF GUY FRANKLIN GILES

FUNERAL OF

 GUY FRANKLIN GILES

BELOVED HUSBAND, FATHER AND GRANDFATHER

MARCH 23, 1920-
APRIL 6, 2008

WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED DEATH?

What is this thing that takes away our parents and loved ones and leaves us with a gaping hole?  What is this thief who comes any time, day or night,  that we have no power to stop?   It matters not if you’re far away on a mission or some place else.  If you're not there you’ll always regret that you didn’t say goodbye,  hug them  and tell them how much you love them, just one more time! We cannot cannot go back and change anything, we can only look ahead to a life without them, and learn to live with their empty space! 

This thing called death opens the windows to eternity for a brief moment to let us gaze beyond the veil and our narrow thinking of life.  It gives us a time to  pause and reflect on life  and love and what’s really important.  We will all pass through that door called death, every single one of us,  Christian,  Buddhist,  Atheist, Jew, Muslim, black or white,  whatever we are, we'll follow our loved one through that same door to another place and another time!

We’ll leave all of our “stuff” behind,  not only  the baggage we gathered along the way but also our legacy -  the way we lived our life!  We leave it all with our loved ones, our friends as well as our foes.  Whatever we did or didn’t do, and all we owned will remain with them, to make them better or bitter!

I am better for having loving parents in my life – my own and my husbands.  They left a beautiful legacy of love, hard work, honesty, and the pursuit of excellence, along with their stuff and their life savings. How generous they were to save and  “pinch their pennies” so their children and grandchildren could have more than they had.  We don’t deserve their money or their stuff, but we get it anyway.  The love of parents is usually greater than the love of their children,  one of life’s harsh realities!

We follow in their footsteps, good and not so good; sometimes there are big shoes to fill!  We sort through all their stuff, keeping the good things, and getting rid of the things that no longer serve us.  We treasure the memories to pass on to future generations to enrich their lives.  If we can see our own weaknesses, as well as theirs, we can heal our childhood wounds.  If we emulate their strengths we create a better world and leave our posterity that legacy of love!  

  

They go on to realms of glory, into the loving arms of the Savior, to rest from the sorrows and pains of this life.  They become our advocates and our guardian angels on the other side, to help us and give us strength to keep walking!  We go on without their presence, but not their love!   Thank you, God, for their love and their lives!  How grateful I am for their influence in my life and their amazing legacy of love! 

I’m very grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and his glorious resurrection!  Because of Him death has no sting and the grave has no victory.  Because of Him we will all live again, there is no end!

“If Christ had not risen from the dead, or broken the bands of death there could have been no resurrection.  But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.  He is the light and the life of the world, yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.”                      Mosiah 16:7-9

How grateful I am for the knowledge that life goes on beyond the grave and families are forever, and we are children of our loving Eternal Father!  I’m even grateful for this thing called death which gives me time to reflect on eternity!