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Strength for the
Next World
Young people often assert themselves and their awakening independence by taking a stand against the beliefs and values of their elders. Sharon Love Cook of Beverly Farms, Mass., had this problem growing up in the sixties. “Going to church had become meaningless,” she wrote. “My friends and I thought church leaders were members of the Establishment.” On Sundays, while her siblings attended a service, she drove around in the family car. Her mother was disappointed. “Your life will get better,” she told
Sharon. “She was right, of course,” Sharon said, “and I regretted the times I hadn’t gone to church with her.”
Years later, when her mother passed away, Sharon was left with the task of packing up her clothes. “It was Christmastime,”
Sharon said, “so I donated some nice things to the church thrift shop for the holiday bazaar. I included my mother’s favorite tweed coat with its worn fur collar.” As she left the building, she spotted a notice about the upcoming midnight service on Christmas Eve. “My mother attended every year,”
Sharon said. “But I always made excuses. Too cold. Too far to drive.” For some reason she decided to go.
“Snow fell as I ascended the church steps,” Sharon said. “I thought of my mother walking up those steps, wearing her favorite coat. Inside tall candles flickered while the wind rattled the window panes. The mournful notes from the organ, coupled with the lateness of the hour, did little to dispense my sense of melancholy.” How ironic that she would be in church on Christmas Eve.
If only my mother were with me, she thought.
People arrived and took their places. As it neared midnight, an elderly lady sat in the pew directly in front of
Sharon. “Something about her coat caught my eye,” she said. “It was tweed, with a worn fur collar. Just like the one I’d donated to the thrift shop.”
Could it be? A few minutes later the woman slipped the coat from her shoulders.
Sharon couldn’t believe her eyes. “My mother sewed strips of white elastic inside the collars of our coats to hang them from hooks in the closet.” The woman’s coat had a white elastic strip inside the collar. “At that moment the rear doors of the church swung open, and the choir entered singing “Joy to the World.”
Sharon rose to her feet with the congregation, and joined the choir in song: “Let heaven and angels sing!”
Sharon looked lovingly at her mother’s coat in front of her. “Heaven and angels indeed,” she said.
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