Saturday night and today was the end, and the beginning. The service for Beck was absolutely perfect and beautiful, and if you weren't there, you wouldn't believe some of the things that happened, so I'm going to tell you. First let me say that I'm so grateful to all of the people who showed up. The sanctuary at the graveyard was overflowing. There were so many flowers and people. Becka would have been very happy. I started the service today. I had to walk around the back of the sanctuary and pray for a while before hand, but I had already spent time with myself at the house. I let it all out today for about thirty minutes. I'm sure there is a lot more to come out, but I poured on the ground today. The realization that she's never coming home again is devastating. Somehow I know things are going to be okay, but they aren't right now. I just realized two things. I'm hurting all over. Everything physically hurts right now, and it's because for the past two days, I haven't sat down. I mean that in the literal sense. I didn't sit at the funeral home until Laurie offered me a chair after the service. I'm going to rest tonight. Anyway, at the service, I opened with "The Old Rugged Cross". Lenita played the keyboards beautifully. When we were done, I gave my remarks. I was up at four thirty in the morning writing them. I tried to let it pour out, and this is what I came up with :
We are here to celebrate the life of a beloved Christian Woman, devoted wife and mother, faithful sister and daughter, and exceptional friend. These are only a few words that describe Rebekah Lee King Patton. She was and is so much more to all that knew her. She had no enemies, and knew no strangers. If I had to use one word to describe her, it would be selfless. Her personality made her a magnet for anyone who needed to be nurtured and cared for, and she never turned anyone away. She had the gift of foresight which allowed her to see solutions before they became problems. She was beautiful in every way that a person can be. She loved the Lord, She loved her family, She loved her friends, and no one who knew her ever doubted that love, because she gave us no reason to. Beck was God's light when the world seemed very dark, and although she is gone from here, she left enough of herself for all of us. She was my beautiful wife, and she traveled to the coldest places of my heart, turned it in to putty in her hands, and molded it in to what God wanted it to be. Even in her death, her last moments here were for someone else. She held in her pain for a day so her son could have good memories of his birthday. Her last spoken words were to say, "I Love You", to the ones she was most proud of, her son and daughter, and after the Lord released her from her war torn, battered body in to Paradise, She gave sight to two people who wouldn't have had it otherwise. To say we will miss her would not come anywhere close to how we feel. She was then, and is now, a part of all of us. For me, she is my best part, and I will love her always and forever. She taught me and so many others how to love without hesitation, how to forgive without expecting to be forgiven, and how to have character by being completely faithful.
I know where you are my love. I watched you live, and I watched you go. I know who took you away, and where you are now. I envy where you are, but I'm so happy for you. I will love you every second of every day for the rest of my life. Heaven is rejoicing because another child of God made it home, and if Beck gets her way, we will all be there with her someday. I only pray that as we walk out of here together, we never forget the examples she set for us, so that she will never be forgotten.
I had to write this down so that I could say it at the service. I haven't been able to talk for a long time now. I start off well, but then my voice goes away. I said how I felt, then I introduced her Father who is a Baptist Reverend Missionary. I have never had more respect for anyone than I have for him tonight. The man was a rock for God. Here he was giving the message at his daughter's funeral, and he never wavered from why he was there. His message was on how we see death and how God sees death, but the meat of it was when he preached on salvation, and how no one in that room needed to leave there without knowing they were saved. He said that he knew where Becky was, and that was why he could do what he was doing. If there were any non believers in there tonight, his message sewed a seed. God Bless the man. Making sure that none go to Hell was more important than his grief.
When he finished, Beck's brother David came up and told about her life and personality from when they were children up through today. He told stories about her and said things that told me he knew his sister well. He never faltered, probably due to his faith, and due to the fact that he was there for her. It was beautiful. When he finished, Beck's brother in law gave the final prayer, and we all walked out to the grave. That's where I told everyone the story of how she left, and we played the song and sang, "Arise My Love". It was then that Beck decided to show up. Earlier when everyone was entering the Sanctuary, we had the kids giving out programs with the words to the songs we were going to play, and inside the Chapel, they were putting temporary tattoos of butterflies on whoever wanted one. Beck loved butterflies and she had several on her arm. Even the funeral director got one from her sister Ruth on his wrist. After the song at the grave, we noticed that the entire area around Beck's casket had exploded with beautiful butterflies of all different sizes. The one that struck me was a blue monarch that kept flying overhead. When we got back in the family car, the funeral director told me he was a little shaken. The butterflies hadn't been there before hand, and the cemetery had just floated the idea around of releasing live butterflies at the graves for their clients during funeral services. I truly think that God sent the butterflies so that anyone who doubted would know where Beck is, and where they can be too. One day I'll ask him.
The day after that has been a whirlwind. We all went to eat together, then we came back here and I played a video of Beck for the family. She and I made it a couple of months ago. She was very sick, but it was important to her. I helped her through it because she couldn't think very well at the time. She told the kids that she was in Heaven, and she would see them there someday. She said she wasn't in pain anymore and not to worry. She was just fine. She talked to her family and my family, which are one in the same now, then she couldn't go on. It was more than enough. Everyone here was deeply moved and grief stricken, but we can always see her and hear her voice now, at least until we get to see her again in person. I'm glad she did it. She really knew what she was doing. I wish she was here to tell me what I need to do now.
I wanted to share the day with you. So many emotions and feelings are coursing through me, I need to go wind down. Some people are leaving tomorrow, and most will be gone by Tuesday. I've already made plans for myself for next weekend. I won't be here. I need to get away for a couple of days. I'll tell you about it tomorrow.
Thanks to everyone from the bottom of our hearts. All of you made her memorial what it should have been. Sweet Dreams and God Bless.
