Gill was my dear friend for over three decades. In the last few years of her life, we were prayer partners. During her final weeks, Gill would still seek to pray for my family, even when she had almost lost the power of intelligible speech due to her medical condition. Gill and her lovely daughters played a significant role in my life. This moving poem was written by her younger daughter Beth, the night before her mother's funeral in 2018.
HELLO
Find her in the garden
Peering at her seedlings sprouting
Always hoping, never doubting
That the time it took to sow and care
Would be worth it when there’s a crop to share.
Find her pinky finger pointing out a tiny detail missed by most
Find her stopping to answer the front door and cheerfully change her plans to host
Find her sitting reading, laughing out load at a grammatical mistake
Find her giving hours to proof read essays
Find her give more than take
Find her crafting life-like sugar flowers
Find her patiently listening for hours
Find her a little late to meet
Because she hasn’t rushed a neighbour in the street
Find her willing to drive us night or day
Find her every evening,
Taking the time to pray
Find her pouring over Scripture on a determined mission for the truth
And when she finds it, see her share it with conviction and wonder and youth
Find her hoping all things, believing the best
Even when her love is put to the test
Search the shelves of her heart, you won’t find the records of wrong
That so many so often store up for so long
Find her facing her battles brave and courageous
Holding tight to a love and a faith that’s contagious
Find her facing all storms with a quiet trust
That her Saviour is love, and her Saviour is just
Find her perceiving a daily kiss from above
Proof that if we’re expectant, we can’t miss His love.
Find her walking down a the path hand in hand with her Maker.
Find me, sticking by her side just as far as I could take her.
Find her walking through a door to a place I can’t yet go
Now to wait with anticipation for the day
When goodbye
Turns into ‘hello’.