Tag: death

• Many rooms

  May 7, 2020 Happy birthday, Mom. I remember you and see you in the peonies growing outside, the green grass, the coffee I sip, the sweets I will eat, and looking back at me in my mirror. Maybe I will make some waffles later today. I still miss you all the time. There would be…

  Ruth E. Hetland

  May 7, 2020

  Mom Notes

  death, Death of a Parent, Pastrgrrl Press, Ruth E Hetland

• Frances

  

  I found out yesterday that a friend of mine in Texas died. It wasn’t a surprise – she was ninety-five years old and pneumonia had set in a few days ago. Her name was Frances and she was a member of my church in Texas. Her husband had been a pastor, and together they had…

  Ruth E. Hetland

  March 21, 2016

  This Clergy Life, Uncategorized

  death, Easter, Frances, Ruth Hetland

• Ashes

  

  We all have our stories of ashes, don’t we? Mine, I think of a home that once existed – now just a memory. Yours might be the ash and ruin you found your life in after poor choices made. They could be the ashes of dreams you had for a relationship or the ashes of…

  Ruth E. Hetland

  February 9, 2016

  Death, Lent, Sermons

  Ash Wednesday, ashes, death, Folden, Imposition of Ashes, Jan Richardson, Ruth Hetland

• All Saints (a sermon)

  

  (Written on the eve of All Saints, 2013) Last night some of the youth from Our Savior’s and Trinity and St. Olaf’s met here for a cemetery walk.  We had done this before a couple years ago – it’s an opportunity to come together and learn more about the cemeteries here in this area and…

  Ruth E. Hetland

  November 1, 2015

  Hope, Sermons

  All Saints, Cemeteries, Cranfills Gap, death, Hope, Places in the Heart

• Joe

  

  I was not surprised when I heard Joe’s heart stopped beating.  We all knew that his heart beat in time with Audrey’s heart and when she died a few months earlier, it seemed so had the spark of his own life.  He spent the last few months journeying through the motions of his days.  He…

  Ruth E. Hetland

  May 4, 2015

  This Clergy Life

  death, God’s promises, grief, Norse, pastors

• All Saints

  

  Henry Scott Holland wrote, “Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner. All is well. Nothing is hurt. Nothing is lost. One brief moment and all will be as it was before. How we…

  Ruth E. Hetland

  November 6, 2014

  Death

  All Saints, Communion of Saints, death, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Frederick Buechner, Memory, Mom, Remembrance

• I Didn’t Know

      You have me still You have me You have me You have my heart completely.             – Gungor Jesse was sick last night.  It was the awful throwing-up-every-half-hour kind of sickness.  He cried because his stomach hurt so badly and he hated the vomiting.  Sweet child.  I kept thinking back to when he…

  Ruth E. Hetland

  February 13, 2014

  Death

  Buried, Children, death, Dying, grief, Hope, Living, Motherhood

• The Bell Tolled 91 Times

  

  The church bell tolled ninety-one times this afternoon as we brought her out to the cemetery.  The wind swept like a brush through the grass and picked up bits of dust, carrying it far off over the cedars and live oaks.  “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” I said and sprinkled the…

  Ruth E. Hetland

  January 30, 2014

  Death

  ashes, bell, death, dust, flag, funeral, grief, Ruth Hetland, tears