My
Tribute to Barbara Curtis
On October 30, 2012, dear, precious
Barbara, my soul mate, my good buddy, and best friend, answered God's
loving call to "Come Home." I was an only child and always
longed for a sister confidant. I've had and do have many close
friends through the 8 decades of my life, but 'Barbara-come-lately'
was uniquely my sister-in-depth.
"Lead her gently Home, Father."
May the Lord whom Barbara loved so passionately and served so
enthusiastically with the gifts God had given her, welcome her with
"Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of
your Lord."
I
remember the first time we met. When I answered the phone one day, a
stranger who didn't actually introduce herself asked if she could
come and visit me. She said she read one of my books. I said "Sure."
Less than two years ago, lovely Barbara appeared at my door and
stepped into my life and into my heart—and the rest is only too
short a history. We bonded immediately as if we had known each other
forever.
I soon found out who she really was
and I was awed at her famous resume. I began to follow her fantastic
blog mommylife.net
which kept me up-to-date on everything important going on in the
nation, the world, my own back yard, the political scene, her family,
and above all in our Christian Faith. Google
Barbara's name to find out how far-reaching is her ministry.
Our
habit (although sometime interrupted by circumstances) was to meet in
Winchester once a month usually at Applebees, for a lingering 3 hour
lunch and private girl-talk. We sensed that the Lord smiled on our
times together. Both of us were always refreshed and energized to
keep on in the direction our Lord was leading us. I grieve ever so
deeply for the absence of her physical presence and our so-frequent
communication and intimate sharing about everything in our lives and
of course our mutual love for writing.
Her family was Barbara's life. She
was the sturdy, dependable hub of their family wheel whose spokes
numbered 12 children, plus their spouses, in-laws, the grandchildren
and beyond. She was always strong for them, teaching and encouraging,
sacrificing herself for them with joy. She continually gathered
others in her ever-widening loving embrace. As her relationships and
friendships increased, she stretched with them. Above all, how firmly
she stood for and fought for the truth of the Christian faith to draw
others closer to God!
I wonder if Barbara realized how close
she was to her "Finish"
Line. She was so young at heart, nearly a quarter century younger
than I. Barbara was a woman of powerful and vivid and compelling
words that always hit the mark on whatever topic she focused. She had
many ideas and plans for the future, the great communicator that she
was. A columnist for many periodicals through the years, most
recently for the ARLINGTON CATHOLIC HERALD, she was a much sought
after speaker on family issues as related to the Christian faith.
The author of many books that have
influenced generations of parents, she was excited to have just
completed a new book manuscript. She packed it off to the publisher
as she drove off to a Christian Journalism Workshop in N. Carolina.
At that event Barbara had been eager to hone her skills, exchange
ideas, and widen her world view so she could better engage our
culture through the new evangelization. She was returning with a back
burner full of ideas. She was stricken with her illness the day she
returned.
In the perfect plan of God, He must
have counted her life as
"complete" and fully acceptable to Him. God would
not have cut her life short. In a way that our finite minds can't
grasp, Barbara had already completed the purpose and destiny
that her loving Heavenly Father uniquely planned for her life from
before the foundation of the world.
In my human emotions, I am still
struggling to accept the shortness of Barbara's life, her absence,
and seemingly unfinished Kingdom business. Lord,
I do accept that Your ways are higher than our ways and that
our times are in Your eternal hands, so
I bow to Your will. “To everything there is a
season; a time to live, and a time to die.” Life
is fragile indeed and we are admonished to “number our days so as
to apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
I must force myself to focus on
the eternal picture or else I will be overcome with personal grief.
When friends and loved ones leave this earth-life and their bodies,
our faith is tested. Both Barbara and I are fairly recent Catholic
Christians. I embrace and actualize what our Catholic faith teaches
and what I do believe and understand about "The Communion of
Saints."
We both affirmed that the Body of
Christ, the Church, includes not only present Christian believers on
earth, but also those who have departed this life in the friendship
of Jesus Christ. The Church teaches with the authority of the Bible
and the very words of Jesus, that believing departed loved ones are
alive and well! The Church teaches that we can pray for their
journey into God's presence, and that they can intercede for us who
are still alive on earth in the Name and Mediatorship of Jesus and
through the action of the Holy Spirit.
When Barbara's precious mortal body,
her “earth suit,” ceased to function, it separated from her soul
and will wait in the earth for the Day of Resurrection. Her eternal
soul—self-aware, alert, and rejoicing in her new eternal state—goes
to God and beholds Him in all His supernal glory.
We speculate, but I venture a guess
that Barbara will not be inactive or content to simply float around
Heaven's universe landscape in minus gravity. Perhaps Heaven, in a
dimension which we can't grasp with our finite minds, may have
available some Celestial Computer Lab with techy angels
hovering around to assist (although no viruses or hacking here!)
where former earth-writers like Barbara can continue to write about
the glories of God's vast creation and conduct interviews with
newcomers who are celebrating Reunions.
Into her "inbox" may come
requests for prayer from us earthlings, loved ones and friends, whose
affairs and lives she will be keeping tabs on—because her love
and ours continues; love never fails. I can visualize precious
Barbara hurrying off to take our prayers through Jesus our Mediator
to our Heavenly Father to be answered!
We have not lost Barbara off in lonely
space somewhere. Her Good Shepherd is welcoming her gently Home into
His loving fold. Surely an immense "cloud of witnesses" are
cheering her arrival while we on earth bid her farewell. Jesus told
us not to let our hearts be troubled, that He prepared dwelling
places for us in His Father's House. I can imagine that Barbara's new
address plate is on one of those mansion "dwelling places."
I'll bet her Place is big enough for the entire Curtis extended
family—Tripp and the kids and spouses and grandkids and
great-grands—to gather there when they too arrive. They will each
have a mansion of their own, but methinks BARBARA'S HOUSE will still
be their fav place to hang out.
Dear Barbara, my good buddy. I will
love you forever. Be prepared-—I too will be sending you some of my
prayer intentions via Angel-Wing-mail pretty often.
“Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let
perpetual light
shine upon her. May she rest in peace. Amen.”
Leona Choy a.k.a."Sal" (To Barb I was “Sal”--it stood for God's SALmon—still swimming upstream, although somewhat more slowly due to chronological factors.)
P.S. Oh Barbara!—now you know the
outcome of the election before the rest of us!
