It was a last-minute decision in the early afternoon to head northwest to watch the eclipse. We live in Mason, so we were at 99.9% totality, but we decided we needed to experience this awe-inspiring event at 100% totality when it was so close. Who knows where we will be in the next 20 years when it happens again in this region?
It was a gorgeous day for a drive. We had the windows down, and music playing, and just kept heading North then West on the least traveled roads we could find. We ended up stopping in a cemetery on a hill. It seems like a great location to look out over the valley.
There were a few other cars, but we headed to a spot with no one else. We were there just a couple of minutes when another car pulled up right across from us. I thought it was odd that they pulled right next to us when there were plenty of other spaces to create your own observing spot. The driver then began to take all kinds of things out of her trunk from wet wipes to flowers to a solar-powered cross on stick. It was then that I realized that she wasn’t there for the eclipse, she was there to visit a grave.
She barely looked at us, but I gave her a quick hello which she acknowledged but kept moving. I wanted to give her privacy, but I was drawn to her as she kneeled and even lay on the ground as she lovingly cleaned the marker and trimmed the grass around the edges. She fussed with the right way to arrange the flowers and put up the cross.
I wondered if she knew the eclipse was happening but didn’t want to disturb her. Did she have glasses if she looked up when the sky began to darken? I had an extra pair. She wasn’t done but began heading back to her car. I took the opportunity to go and offer her the pair of glasses and acknowledge her beautiful work on the gravesite.
She didn’t know that the eclipse was happening. She was there visiting her 16-year-old daughter who had died from cancer many years ago. She told me that she knows she is happy in heaven with Jesus but misses her every day. She said that it is her faith that has held her while Jesus holds her daughter.
She graciously took the glasses and headed back. It was hard for me to hold back my tears as she laid on the grave and looked up at the sky with her glasses on, taking in that moment as close to her daughter as possible.
As we both watched the moon completely cover the sun, there was awe and beauty and sadness. One life basking in the sunshine of an exciting day, while another experiencing profound loss and sadness. In this world with all its immense complexities in creation and in each of our different lives, we are held together by God, our creator, and the power of hope that only Jesus brings.
Living in hope and the revealing light of Jesus with you,
Angie Seiller, Director of Faith Formation