Mourners still need community, even during a pandemic

In 2004, my cousin Eldonna and I travelled to India. During part of our time in that country, we stayed with an Indian family I’d only known through correspondence. While there, we received news that Eldonna’s mother in Saskatchewan had died unexpectedly. With no cell phones, we hadn’t been in …

Use your gifts to light up someone’s dark

Trevor attended my church’s youth group. No fan of boys, I paid no attention to him at first. But one evening he sat down at the piano in the rec hall. His long fingers trickled over the ivories like a rushing stream. He had no music. He didn’t look down, just kept …

A year-end letter to friends and readers

Christmas carries on at our home, as we consider the gift of still-fresh memories of the past year and the promises of the next.    “Hon, if you had to wrap 2019 up in a few words or a sentence, how would you do that?” I asked on Christmas Day. …

Family funerals – hello, good-bye, see you soon

I said a final farewell to a pair of beloved relatives this week: my father’s identical twin brother, Dave, and his wife, Dorothy. Though they died many months apart, their memorial service waited until relatives could gather. Gather we did, a collection of Neufeld cousins and friends from as close …

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