Goodnight, Mother.

As many of you know, my mother died late Tuesday night, July 29.

Although she had been very ill a few months back, her recovery had been good and she had been doing quite well. In fact, I spoke with her the morning I left for the Lambeth Conference.

I had sent her a large vase of sunflowers for her birthday and she wanted to call and thank me for them. She sounded fine. She was 85.

While not unanticipated, this still comes as a shock. Things done and left undone. The passing of a generation. The beginning of a new understanding of my self. Everyone's new position in the family as the generation moves up one. The closing of so many important chapters. The beginning of new ones.

I got in from UK this afternoon. Ms. Conroy picked me up at the airport and we drove immediately to Massachusetts, stopping on the way to pick up a daughter who had flown in from Baltimore to Providence.

Mother's funeral is Friday morning at 9 AM.

Thank you for your prayers and calls and words of kindness and condolence. My sisters in the UK with whom I shared a house not from from the University of Kent and St. Stephen's were simply wonderful in their care and concern for me. I could not have been able to have made it through without them.

I am a grateful debtor for so many of their small, random acts of kindness.

On Wednesday night, one of my sisters drove me to Whitstable, a lovely sea town near Canterbury. We got our feet into the UK mud and ocean and then found a delightful restaurant where we had fresh oysters to whet our appetite. I had steamed mussels in white wine for dinner and she had the sea bass. Oh, and chips. Of course.

It far surpassed fabulous.


We sat and watched the sun set and I snapped this picture. We raised our glass to my mother's memory and blessed her to Jesus where she now finds her eternal rest.

Now, she knows the truth.

Goodnight, Mother. May you rest in peace and rise in glory.