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Friday, February 27, 2009
Last Man Standing
When the phone rang, I had just sat down with a couple of friends for a session of "Sermons R Us" for their critical feedback on my notes for Sunday's sermon. I knew immediately what the call was about. My brother was dead.
William Edson Buckley passed away suddenly at the age of eighty on Wednesday, February 25, 2009.
Just the week before, I had spent three afternoons visiting Billy in a New Jersey rehabilitation center. I was delighted to find him in fairly good condition, even with lung cancer and just a few days freed from intensive care.
He sat fully dressed in a wheelchair after an hour of physical therapy. His gift of gab was intact, his sense of humor in gear. We shared all kinds of memories, exchanged some favorite family folklore, and brought each other up to date on our adult children's comings and goings. To top it all off, his kids and wife showed up during each day's visit.
When the time came for one last prayer, hugs, kisses, and a mutual "I love you," I drove away knowing I would never see my brother Bill again in this earthly life. But I had no inkling the end would come so quickly as it did.
Just five days later, my niece called to report that Billy was back in intensive care. Less than twenty-four hours after that she called again to say he'd passed. My "Sermons R Us" friends lent strong support in my hour of need. We even made some headway on the sermon, finding connections between its Bible text and the news I'd just received. (More about that some other time.)
Billy was my last surviving brother, the third of five, with me the youngest. My two kid sisters have always enjoyed calling me their "baby brother." But now I'm their only brother. I'm not sure how I'll adapt to that fact, or if it really makes any difference at all.
What I do know is that his death brings my own mortality sharply into focus. Whether ten or twenty years from now, or the day after tomorrow, I will surely die. Until then I shall and I must live as God would have me live. For today, and each new day, with God's help I want to do just that.
posted by Jack Buckley at
10:41 AM
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