The man had eyes that smiled. I've only known him for a few short years. When I first started attending church where I now attend, he and his wife sat in the pew in front of me. I didn't get to know them until a year or so after I started attending church there. However, I always enjoyed watching him interact with his grandson. There was an amazing bond between them. I got to know he and his wife after I started my "sabbatical." They reached out to me with kind words, cards and their prayers. Humbling. One thing about him I always noticed (and others that knew him also spoke of it) was when he talked to you, his eyes smiled at you. Last Sunday, as I visited with him in person for the last time (although I didn't know it then), there was a point in our conversation when I said something that elicited a response of "endearment" from him. I busted my gut in laughter. After I wiped the tears of laughter out of my eyes, I looked in his eyes and saw the smile. That is how I will remember him.
"There are accents in the eye which are not on the tongue..."
- Thomas Hardy
"What a wonderful phenomenon it is, carefully considered, when the human eye, that jewel of organic structures, concentrates its moist brilliance on another human creature!" - Thomas Mann
Réquiem aetérnam dona eis Dómine;
et lux perpétua lúceat eis.
Requiéscant in pace.
Amen.
1 comment:
I also remember the smile in his eyes. Thanks for writing this beautiful remembrance of such a wonderful man!
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