Sunday, January 26, 2014

my dear sweet cousin passes



Millie Fox

to know Millie has been to know love,
to know a life suffused by a joyous heart
with every fiber of her being true to her God,
true to answering the call
that the Christ needs us to act for him,
that the moments we are given are special beyond words,
and should be lived fully and surely,
that the partner with whom she built a life
was worth the unconditional love she gave him,
just as he gave the same to her,

Millie has known that everyone she touches
has that of God within her, within him,
and that life is too short to do other than exult
in how wondrous the moment can be,

Millie’s smile could melt one,
and I love the memory of her explaining
the tedious work of picking meat from crabs at Edisto
as “beach fun” to our game children,

Millie’s parents lived that exultant joy,
despite challenge, despite setbacks,
despite the limits small town South Carolina set for them,
in their hearts, in the ripples of their lives,
Julie and Henry reached back toward the heights
from which the best of us comes,
and Millie has lived the best of them every day,
as so many of us who knew them also seek to do with our lives,

Millie was of the best of the heights
to which spirit can reach,
when the other is more important to us
than the self within which we act.


by Henry H. Walker
January 24, ’14

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