Love Not Fear

My mother died just before Thanksgiving. My current Northminster family already knew that, of course. Here is the eulogy I delivered at the funeral: So we used to go to the zoo every year, the day before Thanksgiving. Mom, the kids and me. She used to fuss about if it was too cold, if anyone was going to catch the double, triple, or quadruple pneumonia. She used to worry that it would rain. But we always always always looked forward to it, because Mama was so much fun. One year, we got to the front of the Louisiana Swamp exhibit, and the kids wanted to see the alligator. Mama most certainly did not want to see any alligator. She said she'd wait for us at the entrance to the exhibit. Well, we took a little longer than she thought we should. When we got back to where we'd left her, she wasn't there. We started looking for her, keeping in mind that she was probably looking for us. Finally, my daughter and Mama saw each other: Mama was in the Zoo Train. She'd gotten all the...