A few minutes after noon today, I picked up my phone to see a message from a friend that began, “The sad day has finally come. Queen Elizabeth II has died.”
As I was coming to terms with the news, I remembered that one of my first thoughts this morning was of England. Some hours before the queen took her final breath, all the way across the pond I was thinking of the land over which she had reigned so long and so well. Continue reading
My dearest Mummy,
Unbelievably, today marks one year since you left. There’s so much to say, I hardly know where to begin. Maybe I’ll start by telling you I am fine.
I mean, I am fine today. I have not been fine every day since May 5, 2021. My grief has literally made me sick. Continue reading
Papa stepped into eternity on this day twelve years ago. Although I still miss him, what I missed most today was being on the phone with Mummy.
Mummy and I would make it a point to call each other every year on December 8. These were the most predictable of our many phone calls. Continue reading
That’s probably not the best pun ever, but wordplay must be put on the back burner today. I have bigger fish to fry (on the front burner).
Today is the day when California decides whether good looks and pretty teeth are enough, or whether enough is enough. It is a truth universally acknowledged that good looks and pretty teeth go a long way in the Golden State, but I hope my fellow Californians will remember how they were treated in 2020. May they recall, and then recall. (Pardon the pun, but I’m remembering Othello’s most chilling line: “Put out the light, and then put out the light.”)
I realize the outcome does not depend solely on how the average Californian votes. The governor is backed by the state’s powerful unions and special interest groups, not to mention his friends and relatives in high places. And as I sadly discovered in June 2018, there is such a thing as voter fraud. Still, I believe in doing my part.
When an event as cataclysmic as 9/11 occurs, you never forget where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was having my devotions in a sunlit spot in the Redondo Beach condo where I was renting a room. Unfortunately I cannot recall which passage I was reading, but I can still see the beige-covered NIV Study Bible lying open on my lap, and feel the sunshine streaming upon my shoulders through the window behind me. And I can still hear the silence in the moments before I found out that the world had changed forever.
When I got home from church today, I found my package among a pile of Amazon deliveries lying haphazardly near the mailbox. It seems as though everyone in my building had received a package today. Perhaps some were last-minute Father’s Day gifts.
My package contained a jar of silver polish and two bottles of my favorite dish soap. I hadn’t run out, but for some reason I’d added them to the cart while ordering the polish. I love worshipping the Lord while doing dishes so don’t like running out of dish soap, especially since the Target and Ralphs near me stopped stocking this brand during the lockdown. I don’t know why. It’s not like it’s toilet paper.
This is the eulogy I gave at my mother’s memorial service a few hours ago. I have made some minor edits and added links to the Scripture passages quoted and the video commemorating my mother’s life.
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On behalf of my family, I want to thank each of you for joining us today. We are grateful for your presence and for the many comforting messages we have received since our beloved mother went home to be with the Lord on May 5. Thank you.
Writing the eulogy for Lalita Edwards is at once easy and difficult. Easy because of her exemplary character and well-lived life, and difficult because she was my mother and this is yet another reminder that I will not see her again this side of eternity. There’s a reason the Bible describes death as the last enemy.
My mother was the epitome of the virtuous woman depicted in Proverbs 31. She was wise, generous, compassionate, hardworking, and faithful. Above all, Continue reading
One day about twenty years ago, my flight attendant friend in Hong Kong called to say she would be in LA in a few weeks. We usually met when she came to LA on a flight. The airline put her up at the Torrance Marriott, and I lived in nearby Redondo Beach. If her layover fell on a weekend, we would hang out at the Del Amo Mall, shopping until our feet begged for mercy.
My friend always asked if I wanted anything from Hong Kong, but this time she had a request. Continue reading
Last night, and again this morning, I reached for the phone to call my mother for Mother’s Day, and then it hit me. If someone does pick up the phone, it won’t be Mummy, because Mummy went home to be with the Lord last week.
It happened suddenly. Continue reading
SHARON ARPANA EDWARDS 