Tribute to Gill

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’.