On April 4, 2021 – Easter Sunday – we inurned Joanna’s cremains in the Columbarium at our beloved Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. Mine will join hers there after the Lord calls me home.
A few days earlier, our then-pastor, George Mason, and I talked on the phone. My dear friend George gave me encouragement in the form of a beautiful suggestion. He then realized its application to the Easter sermon that he was preparing and asked for my permission to share our conversation with the congregation. I told him that Joanna would be pleased beyond words for him to cite her in his sermon – she loved his preaching as do I.
In preparing this blog post, I went on YouTube and watched that sermon for the first time in years. Here is what George shared with the congregation toward the end of his Easter sermon:
Between services today, we will inter the ashes of Joanna Jones in our Columbarium. Her husband, Bill, and I were talking about what it’s been like for him since she passed, and he is man enough to admit what a deep and painful grief it has been. He knows she’s in a better place, but he can’t help but want her here with him as she was for nearly half a century.
“As we talked, I thought about the Easter story, and about how much the Marys and Salome wished for the same thing with Jesus. Even after being told that he was raised, they would have preferred finding him there in that place.
“I mentioned my Easter ‘take’ on what ‘not here . . . there’ might mean and how it might apply for Bill with Joanna, too. Whenever the feeling of loss and pain draws him inward to where all he can feel is her absence, I suggested that he go to Galilee to find her there. Not to northern Israel, mind you, but instead to go to all those old familiar places, to do all those familiar things that he saw Joanna doing . . . the way she cared for people the way Jesus did. That is, caring for the hurting who need healing, the lost who need finding, the lonely who need company. You see, since she belongs to Christ now, in His risenness, Bill can expect to experience Joanna’s presence wherever he can expect Christ to be.”
Those beautiful words from George have ministered to me over and over through the past four years. I’ve been to Galilee many times since then.
In 2012, Joanna and I went together to that Galilee in northern Israel, along with a group of around 50 other Wilshire members and 50 members of Temple Emanu-El. But I’ve also been to Galilee, as George suggested, numerous times since Joanna’s passing. I “went to Galilee” in March 2022 when I sponsored a Facebook birthday fundraiser for Genesis Women’s Shelter, raising around $3,000. For many years, Joanna and I went to Genesis with others in our Epiphany Sunday School Class, to provide and serve breakfast to the residents. Joanna loved to sit down at the tables with the women and children, listening to the women’s stories and simply letting them know someone cares (“caring for the hurting who need healing, the lost who need finding, the lonely who need company”).
As George mentioned, Joanna and I were together for almost half a century – 48 years, actually, from the time we started dating. So there were many of those “old familiar places” that he cited, and just as many ways in which I saw Joanna care for others in need. In other words, it’s not hard for me to find “Galilee” all around me, especially in an area where we lived the last three decades-plus of our married life.
On Saturday, I went to Galilee and found Joanna – and the risen Christ – in, of all places, a furniture store. Over the years, Joanna and I shopped many times at Weir’s Furniture on Preston Road in Plano. We bought things large and small – in fact, that’s where we bought the sofa that is in our living room.
Weir’s Furniture
Joanna & me sitting together on living room sofa we bought at Weir’s
For me, though, the purchases weren’t as memorable as the experience of being with Joanna. I was the rare husband who actually enjoyed shopping with my wife, because I simply loved spending time with her. We loved being with each other, and I miss our life together.
Weir’s wasn’t like going to the mall and walking into random shops there. If you went to Weir’s, you had a purpose for going there. And there is no loud music blaring, no crush of people rushing about, just a few customers taking their time to check out pieces of furniture.
Weir’s also has a little country store that we always enjoyed – jams, jellies, preserves, a few books, lotions, old-fashioned (unwrapped) candies in jars, etc.
So I have special memories of the many times Joanna and I walked through that store together.
Ever since Joanna passed away in February 2021, I have thought about going to Weir’s to relive those memories and perhaps feel her presence with me there. On Saturday I FINALLY did that. On my way there, I prayed, asking God to please let Joanna accompany me on my visit to Weir’s and help me to feel her presence with me.
As I got out of the car, I saw a couple, around my age, walking out and holding hands. I thought, “That’s Joanna and me!” So reminiscent of us.
When I walked in, there were four salesmen positioned strategically near the front. One asked if he could help me. I first said that I was just looking but then walked over and shared with him why I was there. I told him, “You may not realize it, but people make memories at places like Weir’s.”
Then I told him about the couple I had just seen leaving the store. Understanding, he replied, “Then you’ve already been fulfilled.” He was very sympathetic. I, of course, showed him my iPhone case with the collage of photos of Joanna and me through the years.
My three iPhone cases – I “rotate” them onto my phone from month to month.
Then I started walking through the store, looking at furniture and remembering the many times Joanna and I took this walk together, often hand-in-hand.
Finally, I went into the little country store, where a clerk greeted me. I shared with her as I had with the salesman and showed her my iPhone case. She asked how Joanna & I met, then asked if our attraction was immediate, so I – as you would expect – shared the story of the Chinese Student Association initiation at OBU, Joanna teaching me Cantonese, etc. As the salesman had been, she was very sympathetic and understanding.
Then I walked around the little country store for a few minutes, again remembering the many times Joanna & I had been there together.
As I left the store, the salesman told me to come back anytime, and I assured him I would.
During this experience, George’s words from April 2021 flooded my soul. I had encountered Joanna and Christ as I walked through Weir’s and as I shared my story with the two sets of very sympathetic ears. I felt Joanna’s presence with me. The only thing that was missing was the physical feel of her hand in mine.
When I got back to my car, I took a moment to thank God for the presence of Joanna – and Christ – in my life. It had truly been a sacred experience. As we go through life, we are making memories even in the most seemingly common places and routine experiences.
After sharing our conversation with the congregation, George closed his Easter sermon with these words:
If you want to know the power of Christ’s resurrection in your life today, don’t hang around the tombs of your own despair. Go find Him. He is not here . . . but there. He has gone out ahead of you, still making the wounded whole, still calling the wanderer home. Join him there. You’ll find your hope there. Amen.“
Amen indeed.