Cheryl♡Anne asked me to introduce our opening hymn, Be Still My Soul. These are her words, written three months ago:
“This last year as I am battling cancer, the words of Be Still My Soul have been a great comfort to me. They remind me not to worry or be afraid because Heavenly Father and our Savior, who have all power, know and love me. They know what is best for me, and will always be there to guide me and strengthen me, so that I can make it through all the challenging times in my life. It reminds me to have patience and faith in the Lord’s plan for me, for someday I will understand all the reasons for my challenges, and know that it has all been for my good. This hymn reminds me to remember all the help He has given me in the past, and to have unshakable hope and faith that He will continue to help me in the future. Be Still My Soul comforts me that after He has helped me learn and grow here on this earth, our Savior will heal my sorrows and bring me safely back to my eternal home to live in peace and joy with Him and those I love.”
Eugene England, one of my favorite scholars said “language [is] a substantial and necessary, though tragically limited, connector of minds”. My words today will be tragically limited in describing the life of Cheryl Anne Groom Merrick. But, hopefully, my words can create a partial, very limited, bridge of understanding.
I have prayed that this talk, this eulogy, would convey to our small group, Cheryl♡Anne’s commitment to truth and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She was first, and foremost, a seeker of truth.
I begin Cheryl♡Anne’s story with her own words: nobody knows me [repeat]. Well, you’ve just heard the first thing that you didn’t know: her preferred form of address is Cheryl♡Anne, but that is so personal that she kept it private between me and her, but I will use it publicly today. nobody knows me (repeat).
You don’t know Cheryl♡Anne - because she couldn’t reveal herself, except to a very few people who could understand and appreciate her, and those are rare. In my very inadequate way I will attempt to convey to you her unusual abilities. You may find it hard to believe some of the things I will tell you about Cheryl♡Anne, and I understand that.
I feel somewhat like Joseph Smith when he said: “I don't blame any one for not believing my history. If I had not experienced what I have, I could not have believed it myself.” But, Cheryl♡Anne is everything I say she is. It took me a large part of our fifty years together to fully appreciate who she really is. So, I think it is important that her story be told, in hopes that it will bring comfort to others who feel that they don’t belong.
I think in words; most of us do. Some don’t. Some people think in pictures, not words, as did Cheryl♡Anne. As she replays memories, she lives them, just as if she were there now - sights, sounds, smells. Such a person can visualize things that we word-thinkers cannot. With seeing only a few parts of a situation or event, she could quickly place them all in a full vision of what was happening AND the consequences. I have seen her proven correct many, many times. She taught me to have a greater love and appreciation for so-called less active members, many of whom are similar to Cheryl♡Anne in this ability.
Cheryl♡Anne is an Idealist - in the ultimate meaning of the word. That meaning is - she lives by true principles, totally, 100%. One aspect of that is that she cannot lie, literally. So much so, that she could never be an actress in any play - because she could not pretend to be something other than what she was. She attended a Relief Society event in which they played the game where everyone told 3 or 4 things about themselves, one of which was not true. She told them she couldn’t lie, but they wanted her to play anyway. She told four truths about herself. They still guessed that it was not true that she had to quickly take off her pants because there was a bee in them. But, if you’re extremely allergic to bee stings, that was a smart, though embarrassing, thing to do.
As an Idealist, Cheryl♡Anne NEVER, literally never, not an exaggeration, never gives up on a correct principle. . She would die first - literally, she would! We were once involved in a social game where the team members had to come to a unanimous agreement about what supply items to take on a task into a rain forest. Several team members agreed with her that you can easily find water in a rain forest. However, because one obstinate older man would not abandon his insistence on carrying heavy, unneeded water, the other team members attempted to persuade her, for the goal of unanimity, to agree to carrying water into the rain forest. Her team did not win the game. Cheryl♡Anne stood for truth, no matter the import of the question, or the consequences.
As an Idealist Cheryl♡Anne had an unwavering commitment to living by principles. Because of her vision she almost always knew what was right and did it - regardless of the cost to her health - her popularity - or any other consideration whatever. If she had any control over the situation, it was done as it should be done. Cheryl♡Anne strove, as Elder Holland recently advised the youth, to “make the world as it ought to be.” As all the prophets have counseled, she strove to be a light in a world dominated by the philosophies of men.
A meaningful life is important to an idealist, but that life is seldom seen by others. She tried to achieve that meaningful life through her writing skill. She says “not many people have seen my writing, but now they are seeing it. I felt discouraged, but now that I have terminal cancer, I am sealing my testimony - with cancer that everybody can identify with and be afraid of”. Page views on her blog are way up!.” One good friend wrote: RO: “without your writing I would not know anything about you”
Cheryl♡Anne was true to her commitments. She never quit on them, no matter the cost. One of the commitments she made was an eternal commitment to me in the temple. She had a spiritual confirmation that I was the right man for her, but she didn’t know cost. I was a challenging husband (more about that later). I will be eternally grateful that Cheryl♡Anne was committed enough to stick with me - and keep working on me - long enough to make me a better husband.
Most importantly, however, and integral to Cheryl♡Anne’s being, to the very fiber of her soul, was her commitment to the truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. But, her commitment to the truth did not start with her conversion to the Church at age 18. Her commitment began some ten or more years earlier - when she learned to read. As a child she read the Bible every night and recognized its truth as witnessed to her by the Holy Ghost. Her conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints merely confirmed who she was - a seeker of truth.
I am grateful to her good LDS friend, Mary, who was patient and loving throughout a loooong conversion process. Cheryl♡Anne went through 24 sets of missionaries! - because she knew that once she joined, she was making a lifelong commitment, in reality an eternal commitment - and she knew she would never renege on a commitment.
One core belief of Cheryl♡Anne is aptly stated in Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who when Horton the elephant says “A person is a person, no matter how small,” an iconic sentence that is beloved by thousands who value empathy and who understand that others who are different are equally human and EQUAL. Cheryl♡Anne views EVERYONE as equals, presidents, children everyone!. There is no hierarchy with her. She understood children very well, and treated them as equals. The children in her third grade writing class loved her. They would shout “Mrs Merrick is here!” when she walked through the door.
Cheryl♡Anne was a great teacher of children. They loved her because they knew she loved them - and because she understood their feelings and thoughts. One third grade teacher referred to her as “working her magic”, interpreted as getting the children to learn and do things, such as writing, that the other teachers could not. Her Patriarchal blessing said she would have a special gift of teaching children, and she did.
Cheryl♡Anne has a good friend of many years whose daughter has a severe neurological problem and must live with her parents all her life. Even after we moved 300 miles away, Cheryl♡Anne called this friend’s daughter every month! - and talked to her as an equal. Even in Cheryl♡Anne’s last suffering days of life - she made that call! - because a person is a person, no matter how small.
When Cheryl♡Anne accompanied me for a two week training class at the post office maintenance training school in Oklahoma, people were lining up to talk to her. These were maintenance mechanics - long hair, beards, tattoos, earrings. Well, not all of them, but many. Their wives even made appointments to talk to her. At first meeting they knew that Cheryl♡Anne was an understanding friend.
For years, she even kept up a friendship correspondence with two women she never met. One of them is a Jewish woman who is old enough to be her mother. When Cheryl♡Anne served a mission responding to emails sent to Church headquarters, this woman wrote in. I don’t know all the details of their correspondence, but this woman complained about the Mormons doing temple work for non-relative Jews. After several exasperating email exchanges, explaining how the Church tries to prevent that, Cheryl♡Anne eventually responded with a most un-missionary statement, saying “I will take responsibility for all the wrong things that Mormons do when you take responsibility for all the wrong things that Jews do! They have now been best friend correspondents for many years.
And it isn’t just people with Cheryl♡Anne. Animals love her. When we’re out walking, dogs invariably come up to her, not to me. They instinctively know that she loves them. Cheryl♡Anne lived close to the Spirit. Just as she felt the spirit of people, she also felt the spirit of animals. Many of us cannot comprehend that, but I’ve witnessed it many times; I know that she could do it. One example was a small snake that said to her - not in words, but in a feeling - “Do you like me?” Another was a cockroach whose non-verbal spirit came through as “run, run, run, stop - somebody sees me, run, run run.” You may think it couldn’t be, but I know Cheryl♡Anne; she feels their spirits because she lived close to the Spirit.
So, what made Cheryl♡Anne everyone’s confidante, every dog’s friend, every child’s beloved teacher? Empathy - but more than empathy. She was that rare person referred to as an Empath. Myself being low on empathy, I cannot adequately portray what it’s like to be an empath. I can only describe it, with the most inadequate words, but with a firm testimony that I have witnessed hundreds of times what an empath experiences. An empath does not just understand what others feel. An empath FEELS what others feel. If she’s near you, your feelings - ALL of them - become her feelings. It doesn’t sound so burdensome - UNLESS those radiated feelings are disturbing, or the empath is in a group of people. Then she feels the feelings of ALL of them. The feelings of the entire group become her feelings. Wow! The most effective way I can describe it to you is the way Cheryl♡Anne describes it, which is, imagine yourself in a Relief Society meeting with fifty people - with all of them talking loudly at the same time! It’s not only stressful to an empath, it’s overwhelming.
Cheryl♡Anne spent her life developing relationships and trying to be a friend to everyone. I’ve seen it happen over and over and over again, that at their first meeting she becomes a person’s close intimate friend, their confidante! They confide their life story because they feel that she deeply cares about them - and she does. That’s a remarkable virtue, but it is also stressful to feel EVERYONE’S feelings.
There are two corollaries: first, an empath is ALWAYS an empath, in every situation. They can’t turn it off. Secondly, even words or pictures can inflict feelings on an empath. Cheryl♡Anne could not watch dramatic movies or watch TV news, or listen to evil stories, or read about cruelty to animals, or see photos of bad or distressed people, or even listen to people talking about people or animals in distress - because the feelings of the people, or the animals, became a part of her - that she would feel and remember forever. One thing I learned from living with an empath for fifty years is - “Everyone is having a hard day; be kind, be gentle, speak softly, and carefully.”
Cheryl♡Anne was a great problem solver. Her motto was “the impossible just takes a little longer.” If she knew the goal, she could usually figure out a way to get there. She also helped me to become a much better problem solver - which is quite an accomplishment for my non-creative brain. She would throw out multiple possible solutions to any problem, until we finally found one that would work. With her extreme sensitivities she could not use any commercial toothpaste. She did her research and made her own. Cheryl♡Anne was a great researcher and learner. She was a fountain of knowledge. Name a subject, and she could probably tell you some things you didn’t know about it. She was always learning - always. The internet was a great blessing in her life.
No eulogy can adequately describe someone. But, Cheryl♡Anne was a marvelous writer, and she chronicled her life, mostly in her online blogs. She has many articles in four blogs. She had five items published in the Ensign. Her approximately 700 poems (online, or course, are basically her life story. She understood how words make people feel. Her writings are leaving her personality and her presence in the world.
In the words of Rudyard Kipling, Cheryl♡Anne filled the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run. She was not a workaholic in the mundane tasks of mortality, but her love of and desire to help people, both those living and our ancestors, was a driving force in her life. Even though she could seldom attend meetings, she spent many hours attempting to get to know everybody in the ward. She spent even more hours getting to know our ancestors, and doing the work for them that can only be done in mortality.
On a lighter note, Cheryl♡Anne liked to wear hats, until it hurt her had to wear them. But, she definitely was not out to draw attention. She just thought they were fun. She had to give away a lot of hats.
One year at BYU Education Week, Cheryl♡Anne felt impressed to attend an evening class on personality, even though she was usually too tired to attend evening classes. I had long ago learned to trust her impressions, so we went. That class has made a huge difference in our lives. It’s like Brigham Young said: “I have learned that the greatest difficulty that exists in the . . . bickerings and strifes of [people] arises from the [lack] of rightly understanding each other.” That bears repeating: “the [lack] of rightly understanding each other.” Cheryl♡Anne spent many hours mastering the principles of understanding each other.
From her study we learned:
1. that though every person is unique, we can each be placed in a personality group of people who are a lot like us. They think like us and have similar abilities, preferences, and weaknesses.
2. Secondly, personalities don’t change, but we can all learn different behaviors in relating to people who are different from us. This has helped us in working toward unity - especially in our marriage, but also with everyone else, in that we don’t expect the other person to be something that they cannot be. I respect, and defer, to her whole picture vision. She respects, and appreciates, my attention to details. She doesn’t expect me to be a great communicator, but she helps me to be better at it. I don’t expect her to handle the mundane details of a household, so I do a lot of them. In unity we work toward our shared goals, each contributing according to our best abilities and helping each other in their weak areas.
One of Cheryl♡Anne's good friends wrote to her "Thank you for being a light", and she has been a light to so many people in so many ways. She has been the guiding light in our efforts to become unified in our marriage. We tried to follow the counsels given by Elder Soares in his words: “[husbands and wives should] move forward together [that’s important - move forward together!] and in full partnership with the Lord, especially in regard to each of their divinely appointed responsibilities of nurturing and presiding in their family.”
But, we did not know one crucial principle. We thought that as we became better, more righteous, then we would become more unified. Then, at a stake conference Saturday evening meeting the general authority 70 (I don’t remember his name) taught us the correct principle, like this: he said, first, you become unified, and as you do, you will rise. That is true; it works! For us, the process was - you both come to understand each other, understand the truth, accept it, live it, and work at it until everybody wins.”
Testimony: Cheryl♡Anne lived in a spiritual world. She sought confirmation of the Spirit of the Lord in all her thoughts and actions. She says “things that are not seen ARE my life; contact with the other side is where I live”. One of those contacts gave her the message “there are lots of people here (meaning where she is now) who love you.” She needed to hear that.
I think Cheryl♡Anne probably received revelation every day of her life. I will honor my memory of her by following as she did the counsel of President Nelson as he said “. . . take charge of your own testimony of Jesus Christ and His gospel. . . Nurture it . . . Feed it truth. Don’t pollute it with [the] false philosophies of . . . men”.
Cheryl was a seeker of truth. As Dieter Uchtdorf said: “So were do you find truth? It is . . . in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the fulness of that Gospel is . . . in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Cheryl♡Anne fit the mold of President Joseph F. Smith’s comments when he spoke of the inner strength of the pioneer women, saying, “Could you turn one of these women away from their convictions in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints? Could you darken their minds as to the mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith? Could you blind them with reference to the divine mission of Jesus Christ, the Son of God? No, never . . . could you do it. Why? Because they knew it. God revealed it to them, and they understood it, and no power on earth could turn them from what they knew to be the truth.”
Cheryl♡Anne wanted to leave this world “recommended”. In her last temple recommend interview, she was asked about her testimony of Christ. Her response was more than a statement of faith. Her response, through tear-filled eyes was “He is my friend.” This is her poem,
He Lives
I have felt Him beside me
when in desperate exhaustion
I could go no further
I have felt His calming presence
in interminable nights
when fear and loneliness
have gripped my soul
I have known His guidance
when a thought
suddenly bursts upon my mind,
like a flare lighting a dark sky,
showing the path ahead.
His Spirit has filled me
with hope and assurance
when all others have despaired.
I know He lives
for I feel my heart
being warmed
by His Love.
There’s an old song made famous by the great Marian Anderson, that says “nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen; nobody knows but Jesus” [now you know why she told me not to join the choir]. So true. Even I have never seen her at her best; she had poor health when I married her. She’s had poor health since she was a toddler, and the doctors could never find the cause. It was only in her recent cancer treatments, with knowledge that didn’t exist until recent years, have the doctors found a probable cause. But, even before the cancer, we didn’t see her at her best. She didn’t walk around much; she spent most of the time sitting down; and I covered for her. To understand the magnitude of her accomplishments, you need to know what she endured on her way there. But, this is neither the time nor the place to detail her health problems. So, I will summarize by saying, Cheryl♡Anne pushed herself to exhaustion, day after day, year after year, to bless others. After every event or activity, where she appeared to have somewhat normal health, she paid for it; she collapsed for days - or weeks. Every little thing cost her. She endured more than most of us will ever have to endure, and she kept her faith to the end.
Some of Cheryl♡Anne’s friends thought that the optimism she expressed during cancer was because she expected to be healed. She always knew that she was NOT going to be healed. She has known since we moved down here that her time was limited. Her optimism is her faith in Jesus Christ, that he is blessing her through this challenge, and her trust that whatever fate he chooses for her is for her best good - that He truly loves her! Her life was an example of President Nelson’s counsel: “The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives, and everything to do with the focus of our lives." Cheryl♡Anne's focus was Jesus Christ.
Cheryl♡Anne felt that, for her, it is best not to live a longer life, that her moving on is not just a part, but a fulfillment of her mission on earth. She wanted to be a light showing the way. She said “to be the light; I needed a vehicle (dying of cancer) to show the light”; this may be the kindest thing for me; aging with the BRCA gene and a genetic protein deficiency would not be pretty. I’ve already been granted an extra seven years.”
Nor will I discuss the severe emotional abuse that she suffered as a child. It would take a dissertation to describe it, and you wouldn’t believe that it could have happened. Severe is not too strong a word. Joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints may have literally saved her life. But, through it all, she never stopped loving the abusers; she tried all her life to help them heal, especially since the emotional abuse was not entirely the fault of the abusers. It had been passed down through several generations.
But, in perhaps the greatest triumph of her mortal life, Cheryl♡Anne broke the pattern of generations. The emotional abuse DID NOT continue through her; she stopped it. I sometimes wonder if she volunteered for the job, if in our pre-earth life, she said, as did Isaiah, "Here am I. Send me!" As part of that breaking the pattern, she had to be healed herself. It took 70 of her 72 years to be healed. Her cancer was necessary to that healing. The Lord knew. The cancer was necessary to heal her childhood trauma and bring the family closer, but removing the pain can only come through the Great Healer Himself. This is Cheryl♡Anne's poem:
For Me
He knows me.
He knows my pains.
He is aware of my hidden sorrows.
Knowing that my burdens are
more than I can bear,
He willingly suffered,
so my burdens could be light.
He has paid for all,
making the wrongs right,
and healing my heart.
He is there to help me,
strengthen, and comfort me,
so I never have to be alone.
Through His love for me,
He has set me free.
She is free now - to soar in the heavens.
I regret to say, that her second greatest challenge was me,. Another situation where I can almost hear her say, "Here am I; send me; this guy really needs my help". And, help she did, over many years and with extreme patience. I also came from a dysfunctional family and had a lot of problems that needed fixing. At our temple sealing 50 years ago, the sealer gave me some advice that I’ve never forgotten. He said it was my responsibility to “carry her in your arms to the Celestial Kingdom”. I started out poorly on that task, but with her help, and the Lord’s actual changing of my heart, Cheryl♡Anne felt like a loved and nurtured woman!
A statement by Brigham Young now relates to my future. He said: “ . . . [eternal marriage] . . . is the thread which runs from the beginning to the end of the holy Gospel of Salvation - of the Gospel of the Son of God; it is from eternity to eternity.” It is now my responsibility to endure to the end as Cheryl♡Anne did.
Some of her words and feelings at the end were:
Mortality is our choice; we signed up for this; this is a practice world.
Mortality is a celestial course, and I’ve done everything I could to create an eternal family (meaning, the rest is up to us)
Her words again:
I have no future here; staying would destroy everything I’ve worked for.
I feel like I’ve done all the things I’m supposed to do. My work here is done.
I can do little of importance on this side, but lots of importance on the other side.
I’ve done the work for deceased family members that can only be done in mortality, and I have left everyone with the resources to continue the work. (that’s us again)
I have mixed feelings, she says. I want to be with family, but I want them to know my true self, which is not going to happen. [I’ve tried to give you a hint of her true self today.]
Her words again:
“I’m going out in a blaze of glory; this is as good as it gets for an idealist.”
I’m excited about future prospects on the other side.
I want a mission where I can work with other people, a mission that I can’t have here.
She rejoiced in these words of a Priesthood blessing:
“People are praying for me on the other side.”
Continuing with her words:
I am going to a safe place with loving and supportive people.
I am looking forward to not having to do so many details!
[I will add, that of all personality types, Cheryl♡Anne‘s is least equipped to deal with even the smallest of details, and mortal life is packed with details. But her spirit drove her to do perform the details anyway! And those details created a lot of stress, yielding a very stressful life. But, her spirit controlled her actions, regardless of the physical price she paid.]
continuing her words:
How would you feel about having the flu or covid the rest of your life?
I want to be free of the pain. I am being saved from more suffering.
“It’s going to be nice not to have to deal with a body like this.”
[Her words to me] she said: I need to perform this mission on my own; you have a mission to perform here in which you will continue to grow.
Cheryl♡Anne said she was happier during cancer than she has ever been.
And lastly, her words again: “The Lord is saving me. He is giving me my righteous desires. He understands and loves me!”
A neighbor sent a tribute: “Dear Cheryl, You have such a Christlike spirit. I have been so inspired by you in the way you maintain a positive attitude and faith during trials and challenges. You have caused many in our neighborhood to desire to draw closer to the Savior because of your example. You are in our thoughts and prayers daily. May you continue to feel the tender mercies of the Lord. Thank you for sharing your journey. Know always that you are loved.” Love, . . .
Knowing the sender, their faith, their good works, their demonstrated love, their testimonies, and the esteem in which we have held them since our first days here makes this tribute all the more dear.
Elder Holland recently said “untested faith is not faith.” Cheryl♡Anne has kept the faith and passed the test of mortality. She can say as did the Apostle Paul: I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.
Cheryl♡Anne knows me well. She was concerned that I might praise her too much in this talk. But, isn’t that why we’re here? She reminded me that only One Person ever walked on water. Well, sure. none of us are perfect, but we don’t have to be. All we have to do is try our best, and Christ will make up the difference.
In 1 Nephi Jesus Christ said: “if they endure unto the end they shall be lifted up at the last day, and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb.” Cheryl♡Anne stood as a witness of God at all times . . . and in all places . . . to the end.
I began Cheryl♡Anne’s story with her own words: nobody knows me. This was a great sadness in her life, that nobody understood or appreciated who she really is. Perhaps you understand a little better since I’ve just spent thirty minutes describing her unusual talents and sensitivities.
But, in the process of dying by cancer, Cheryl♡Anne was joyous as she came to realize that JESUS KNOWS ME. He knows my true self, and He loves me! He understands what it means to me to be an idealist. He loves my unwavering commitment to His Gospel, and to living by true principles. He knows how I strove to be a light in a world dominated by the philosophies of men. He knows how important a meaningful life is to me - and how important it is to me to seal my testimony with my death, that this may be the kindest thing for me. He knows I trust in His love for me, that I also trust that whatever fate He chooses for me is for my best good - that He truly loves me.
He certainly knows, as no other knows, what it’s like for me to be an Empath, to FEEL what others feel, because He felt for ALL of us in Gethsemane and on Calvary. He knows how very much I have endured as I struggled all my life in a defective body, because He has been there with me all the way. He knows how much stress my childhood trauma has caused me all my life, and how the cancer was necessary to heal me from it - because He healed my heart! Yes, through His love, He has set me free! The Lord is saving me. He is giving me my righteous desires. He knows, understands and loves ME!”
Cheryl♡Anne lived an undeviating course toward eternal life, through the power that is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Cheryl♡Anne is now among the spirits of the just, who have been faithful in the testimony of Jesus while they lived in mortality. Cheryl♡Anne is home.
After Cheryl♡Anne’s good friend Kirsten Beitner reads Cheryl♡Anne’s poem Gazing at Old Photos, (because I can’t do it), I will introduce the closing hymn.
Gazing at Old Photos
Seeing my younger self,
I remember when life
stretched endlessly before me
so full of possibilities.
Filled with sparkling optimism,
I faced forward gazing
into the vastness of my future.
Now, fifty years have passed.
With knowing eyes,
I look back at my younger self
and smile.
The years have been good,
but far harder than
I ever could have imagined.
In these years,
full of heartaches and joys,
my faith has been tested,
my talents honed,
and my love has grown.
With hope I still look forward,
but with an awareness that
my time here is no longer "endless",
and wonder what more I can do.
Is there someone I can help?
Are there things I yet need to do?
So many I've known are gone now -
grandparents, uncles and aunts,
cousins, parents, and brothers.
There is an emptiness in my life
that they once filled.
I'll continue longing for them
until I join them on the other side
where eternity will truly
stretch before me
full of sparkling possibilities.
I chose the closing hymn, #163 Lord, Dismiss Us with Thy Blessing, because so many of its phrases typify the life of Cheryl♡Anne. The Gospel of Jesus Christ filled her heart with joy and peace. She trusted in the redeeming grace and salvation offered in the atonement of Jesus Christ. She was daily refreshed by the scriptures, the words of the prophets, and the Gospel’s joyful sound as she traveled through this mortal wilderness. The fruits of Christ’s salvation did indeed abound in her heart and life. Finally, and most importantly, she was ever faithful to the truth and to Jesus Christ. Cheryl♡Anne is home.
Ossuary Service
◦ set rose by urn - Laura
◦ set up Kirsten painting on gold easel - Garrett
◦ Talk: Diana
◦ Short Talk - Garrett
Thank you all for coming. Cheryl♡Anne expressed her feelings about the end with these statements:
" do not want my family’s last memory of me in a coffin!"
“I don’t want to be in a box underground!” - No Sunshine
No “stuff and view”; cremation, then a memorial service later
From my favorite version of All thru the Night
Thou, my love, art heavenward winging
home thru the night.
Earthly dust from off thee shaken,
Soul immortal thou shalt waken,
with thy last dim journey taken,
Home thru the night
Today we place her mortal remains in a resting place, but Cheryl♡Anne is awake - at home.
Dedicate resting place - Boyd Adams
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