Comments on: Martha’s funeral

By: smb

smb — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 02:55:14 +0000

I’m grateful for the two stories in this post.

By: Wilfried

Wilfried — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 09:55:46 +0000

Thank you, ukann! Always good to see you around here. Indeed, one must have been a member of these small branches, or a missionary in similar circumstances, to understand the charm and challenges of those primitive units. I presume one finds such now in countries where the Church is barely starting, in Africa, in former communist countries… Let’s cherish our memories !

By: ukann

ukann — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 07:53:47 +0000

Thank you Wilfried for another moving vignette of early European LDS life. They so much remind me of the little branch I was baptised into when I was 14 years old, in the early 60′s in England. I came in on my own, from an abusive family background. How grateful I am for those members who adopted me as a daughter. We clung together as a family. I’m in a larger Ward now, though still only 100 attendance on a ‘good’ Sunday. Fortunately the sense of family is still there – we mourn and rejoice with each other as much as in a real family (though in my case – more).

By: Wilfried

Wilfried — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 05:15:16 +0000

Thank you for adding this to the comments, Ardis & Marjorie.

Your words about family made me think. The accomplishment of Family in Mormon life is a dimension that can be achieved from various perspectives, from the “regular” family, to the blended and extended, and also in the intensity of togetherness in branches and wards when people are single. Martha was single but had made her small branch into a family. Of the thirty people attending her funeral, I remember only a fraction as married couples, perhaps two or three couples. But all were brothers and sisters in the truest sense, brought together by their conversion and their dedication to the Gospel. Like you said, Ardis, “all of us as the family of God”.

By: Marjorie Conder

Marjorie Conder — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 02:19:07 +0000

Ardis has said exactly what I somehow wanted to say. She has captured the spirit of a most remarkable day. I would add that for me too the highlight was the son’s talk. Davis and JoAn have a blended family of 10 children, but it apparently has become a seamless whole. Coming from a blended family that tried, but did not succeed nearly as well, can doubly appreciate the remarkable leadership and goodwill all around that allowed it to happen for the extended Bitton family. Far beyond his scholarly achievements this great family is the greatest tribute to both Davis and JoAn.

By: Ardis Parshall

Ardis Parshall — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 22:04:20 +0000

Some impressions of Davis Bitton’s funeral, without making this a news report: It was the familiar LDS funeral, with perhaps three times as many flowers as usual sent from distant friends who could not attend. We heard the obituary, and talks by family members, with historian James Allen speaking for Davis’s professional colleagues, and a sermon on the plan of salvation, and musical numbers presented by family members. The tenderest words were by a son who told of kneeling at the temple altar sometime after Davis and JoAn were married, being sealed as a family, and his thanking Davis for how well he loved their mother. For someone else with Davis’s accomplishments, the funeral could have been a recitation of publications and professional achievements and honors received.That was in the background — what most mattered was Davis’s family and faith, and there were several eloquent tributes to that. In its details, the service was very much about Davis; from a slightly broader perspective, it was about the gospel and all of us as the family of God. Like Martha’s funeral.

By: Wilfried

Wilfried — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 20:38:14 +0000

Thank you all for your kind words and uplifting thoughts.

Norbert (4), the branch in Kortrijk is indeed one of those incredible mission places, in the heart of strong traditional Catholic country. I have the highest respect for those pioneers.

Ardis (13) and Marjorie (15), if appropriate, tell us more about yesterday’s funeral.

By: Marjorie Conder

Marjorie Conder — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 20:23:08 +0000

Thank you Ardis–
I was hoping someone would comment on “yesterday’s funeral”. I’m feeling quite inarticulate but deeply touched by all I heard and observed. Your combining that experience with “Martha’s funeral” somehow created “one great whole.” Thank you.

By: Leslie

Leslie — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 18:49:40 +0000

Thank you. I truly enjoyed this story. It touched so many aspects of our faith.

By: Ardis Parshall

Ardis Parshall — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 18:46:21 +0000

Thank you, Wilfried. I went to a funeral yesterday, different from Martha’s in the sense that it was much larger, and for a lifelong Latter-day Saint with the full LDS social network woven into his life from the beginning. Yet, like Martha’s friends, he and we “exulted over the news that Joseph Smith received the priesthood,” and that assurance keeps us within the same “life of dedication” as Martha, when honors and ease have lured others away. The recognition that you and I and Martha and my friend share this knowledge and outlook and hope is why I love your stories so much. I never met Martha, but she is my sister and I understand her.