A Celebration of Paul Brown’s Life
a person can be with us,
and then, suddenly, they’re not,
we ache to remember them truly, fully,
we ache to have them still with us,
we ache for the goodbyes not said,
for the wisdom we won’t hear anew, again,
for the times spent together
that have helped make us who we are
and could make who we are even better
if they were still with us,
I miss the light of those we have lost
for how they helped us and themselves
deal with the darknesses within,
today about sixty of us gathered in a Durham park
to remember and celebrate Paul Brown,
a dear man who well used the light of his life
with those who were hurting,
particularly those hurting through no fault of their own,
his job and calling to minister in hospital and outreach facility
to those hurting and dealing with the bad hands they were dealt,
their psychological struggles so like a broken bone,
not defining who they are, rather describing what they have to deal with,
Paul’s love of family shouted in our time together today:
his devotion to parent, to grandparent,
to his two children whose broken hearts
released a love that shone fiercely on his life,
and revealed a father devoted to whomever
his son and daughter found the way to be,
and, most clear to me today, to his four grandchildren
who know and live his unconditional love for them,
and whose broken hearts released poetry and tears,
and a resurgent joy as they can still feel Paul’s love for them
surrounding them like a bright sun,
they still know his love
and live their lives to be the wonders that Paul saw,
Paul’s child quoted him,
at a time when they were complaining
of “having to do” something:
“All you have to do is die. Everything else is a choice.”
unfortunately, Paul’s number was called,
and he had to die,
how wondrous are all the right choices
he made while alive.
by Henry H. Walker
August 22, ‘20
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