Speaker for the Dead: The Circuitous Man

 

I had heard Edwin was in the hospital. I had heard the church was collecting money. The way I had heard it from my wife was that it was to cover his medical bills.

Finding Out

I was going into church to train Sheila on our Dial-a-Prayer system, a phone line with an inspirational prayer available twenty-four hours a day and seven days per week. Right now the technology used is an old micro-cassette based answering machine. Sheila had volunteered for the fifth week of the month. This was her second training session. The first was before the start of the pandemic. Not every month has five Sundays, and we had changed from having five volunteers alternating the weeks on Dial-a-Prayer for several months with CoViD. Thus, we are now trying to get back to normal, and I was retraining her. I’ll have to retrain her again in November, since in a few weeks, we are going to a more modern phone system, and half of what she learned Tuesday will be obsolete.

Because I was coming into church, my wife handed me checks to take in with me. Since the CoVid outbreak, we have not had in-person services, and she has normally been mailing our tithes and other contributions. I took the check for our weekly tithe and a check for the fund for Edwin and handed them to the secretary as I walked in (with my mask on, of course).

I then trained Sheila on Dial-a-Prayer. We did not get many done. It’s a complicated process to learn, and difficult to master. It also relies on a lot of general knowledge that is not as general as it once was. There is always a Bible verse used, for instance. The inspirational readings we use have the passages with Book, Chapter, and Verse, but not everyone knows how to read these. For instance, from the Book of Psalms, we don’t say, “from the Book of Psalms, Chapter Forty, Verse Eight.” The proper way to introduce the verse is, “from Psalm Forty, Verse Eight.” Also, not everyone seems to know the different types of books in the Bible: when to introduce something just as “the Book of” versus “the Gospel According to” versus “the Epistle to” versus “the Epistle from,” and so forth. And then there are the ones where it is “the Second Epistle to the Corinthians.” Even Presidents of the United States might botch that up. I gave up and just had her use “And from (book name), Chapter (chapter number), Verse (verse number).” As it was, we spent two hours getting four recorded. This is not surprising to me, having trained many others in this art. I’ve been doing Dial-a-Prayer for nearly thirty years and coördinating the volunteers and training people for the last ten. I am not sure who trained me. Maybe it was Edwin.

Sheila has some physical disabilities that cropped up a few years ago after her husband died. I have never asked, but I suspect a stroke. She has trouble on one side of her body. She uses a cane to walk and has difficulty with stairs. Our church building is an old one that was built long before the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed. Going to the back work room, there are stairs. They must also be negotiated when leaving the work room. As I finished up training Sheila on Dial-a-Prayer, I assisted her out from the workroom, down the first step onto the platform where the minister speaks and where the choir performs, and then another step down into the main body of the church about six feet later at the front end of the platform. As I helped her down the second stair, Sheila said, “I won’t have my Eddy to help me down when the choir performs now.”

“Beg pardon?” I asked.

“Didn’t you hear that Edwin died last month?”

“No, I had understood that he was in the hospital, but had not heard more.”

Much later that evening, I was speaking to my wife and told her. She was also surprised. I searched for Edwin’s obituary and found it very quickly. He had died according to his obituary on August 2nd. I went back and looked at the church announcement I had been ignoring in my e-mail box:

Unity Church of Rochester is holding a Prayer Project to pray in funds needed to handle final arrangements for member Edwin (Last Name) who transitioned on 8/1/2020. We ask that you include this in your daily prayers and envision these funds flowing into Unity Church of Rochester. If you choose to make a financial contribution, please note the “Edwin (Last Name) Prayer Project” on your checks. If paying by PayPal, please notify Unity Church of Rochester via e-mail that the funds are for this prayer project. With Blessings, (President of the Board)

It wasn’t for medical bills. The fund was to take care of his burial or cremation expenses.

Edwin

I had known Edwin for close to thirty years from the time I had started attending our church. I could tell you a lot about Edwin. About how he had come to Unity and his history with the movement. About his work history. About his family and how he related to them. About his troubles and previous health problems. About how I wound up with his father’s ukulele. But none of that captures the essence of Edwin.

Edwin’s main characteristic is that he could never be direct. If he wanted to ask you a question, such as, “Can I borrow $20?” you first had to hear a long and circuitous introduction to the subject. If he wanted to tell you something, like “Here’s that $20 I owe you,” you were going to have to go from point A through point Z all the way through the alphabet, even though point Z was inches from point A, were one to go directly. Every interaction with Edwin was circuitous, sort of like the story in the section above. I could have said, “Edwin is dead.” That would be my normal style. But it wouldn’t have honored Edwin properly.

I think the last interaction I had with Edwin, he was asking me for advice on his cat, Buddy. As usual, he didn’t just come out and ask the question he wanted, “Do you know anything about when cats do (this behavior)?” Instead he started with some entrance to the subject along the lines of, “Now, what veterinarian do you go to again?” From there, it was a good ten minutes before he got around to asking the real question. That was Edwin. That was his most distinguishing feature.

God bless him on his journey. I’m sure he’ll get where he’s going eventually.

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  1. She Member
    She
    @She

    Arahant: God bless him on his journey. I’m sure he’ll get where he’s going eventually.

    No doubt.  With many good stories told along the way.  RIP, Edwin, and God Bless Sheila. 

    Storytellers leave a large hole in life’s fabric when they pass on.  We owe it to them to keep their stories going.  Thanks.

    • #1
  2. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Well done. A fitting tribute. /obviously I didn’t know Edwin

    • #2
  3. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Some people do chatter on and on. Frequently it is because they don’t get much of an opportunity. I bend over backwards to be patient.

    • #3
  4. Richard Fulmer Inactive
    Richard Fulmer
    @RichardFulmer

    Percival (View Comment):

    Some people do chatter on and on. Frequently it is because they don’t get much of an opportunity. I bend over backwards to be patient.

    That’s a good thought.  I’ll try to keep it in mind as I tend not to be so patient.  Thanks.

    • #4
  5. Richard Fulmer Inactive
    Richard Fulmer
    @RichardFulmer

    Arahant: About how he had come to Unity and his history with the movement.

    Movement?  There’s a story there.

    • #5
  6. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Richard Fulmer (View Comment):

    Arahant: About how he had come to Unity and his history with the movement.

    Movement? There’s a story there.

    Unity is referred to in a lot of ways. It is part of the New Thought Movement from the last Nineteenth Century.*

    * Wikipedia entries on such subjects should be taken with a grain of salt.

    • #6
  7. Richard Fulmer Inactive
    Richard Fulmer
    @RichardFulmer

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Richard Fulmer (View Comment):

    Arahant: About how he had come to Unity and his history with the movement.

    Movement? There’s a story there.

    Unity is referred to in a lot of ways. It is part of the New Thought Movement from the last Nineteenth Century.*

    * Wikipedia entries on such subjects should be taken with a grain of salt.

    I can have new thoughts only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays when I’m a libertarian.  I can’t have them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when I’m a conservative or on Saturdays and Sundays when I give up in disgust.

    • #7
  8. Gossamer Cat Coolidge
    Gossamer Cat
    @GossamerCat

    I did a double take when I saw this title, because I had just been telling someone a few days ago that Speaker for the Dead was one of my favorite all time books.  I had looked it up on Amazon and now it is popping up all over my internet sites, and here it was at Ricochet.  I have often said that such a tradition is needed and you have done it beautifully.

    • #8
  9. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Richard Fulmer (View Comment):
    I can have new thoughts only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays when I’m a libertarian. I can’t have them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when I’m a conservative or on Saturdays and Sundays when I give up in disgust.

    Well, today’s Wednesday, so it’s your lucky day.

    • #9
  10. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Gossamer Cat (View Comment):
    I have often said that such a tradition is needed and you have done it beautifully.

    Thank you, and yes, I was playing off that book’s title.

    • #10
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