One of Burns' most familiar songs contains the line, "But to see her was to love her." This was absolutely true of Jane: during more than forty-five years of marriage, I never met anyone who was not taken with her inner and outer beauty.
Jane was born in Centralia, Illinois, and attended high school and Junior College there. We met during a summer when I was substitute organist at the Presbyterian Church where she was singing in the choir.
In time we had three splendid children: Beck, Hud, and Matt, and three grandchildren: Greg, Gwen, and Kate, on whom she doted. Our home life was a happy one and all of us often told her how much we loved her. On the occasion of her sixty-fifth birthday in 1997 I hired a calligrapher to inscribe a card with the quotation from Sir Thomas Malory: "Lady, I take record of God, in thee I have had my earthly joy."
About midway during the past year I realized that God was answering our prayers, in that Jane was relatively free from pain and we were able to do many things with friends and family. During the last few days she slept constantly, but knew when people were with her. On the day before she died she suddenly opened her eyes and said with a clear voice, "I am ready to go home now."
The concept of the communion of the saints involves the fact that our love streams into the beyond to those who have proceeded us, but also that their abiding love and presence flows back. Today Jane is one of those who rejoice with us, but on another Shore, and in a greater Light.
Charles Huddleston Heaton
J.S.Bach, Preludes
R. Vaughan Williams: "Rhosymedre"
Introit
"Thou Knowest, Lord, the Secrets of our Hearts"
Henry Purcell
Funeral Sentences
Hymn 518, "Christ is Made the sure Foundation"
Collect for Burial
Psalm 24
Chant: Barnby
The First Lesson
From the Eighth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans
Nunc Dimittis, in d minor
Thomas Walmisley
The Second Lesson
From the Fourteenth Chapter
of the Gospel according to St. John
Anthem
"How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place"
Johannes Brahms
The Sermon
The Apostles Creed and The Lord's Prayer
The Prayers
Hymn at the Prayers
Hymn 662, "Abide with Me"
Hymn 525, "The Church's One Foundation"
Organ Postlude
The Rev. Wade Lawrence, Deacon
Trinity Cathedral
Once I found out the secret of the Universe. I have forgotten what it was, but I know that the Creator does not take Creation seriously, for I remember that He sat in Space with all His Work in front of Him and laughed. -- Lord Dunsany, "The Hashish Man"