Goodbye Old Mike, my friend

A couple of old friends of mine passed away recently. Memorial services are planned for later this summer.

I grieved when I heard the news, wishing that I’d stayed in closer contact, but now they were gone, never to be seen again.

I experienced my parents’ deaths in a similar fashion. I wasn’t there either time. They were cremated, and I received their remains neatly packaged in small cardboard boxes.

I was far removed from the spectre of death.

Last week I received a message that my friend Old Mike had passed away at the Loring Colony. One of the first Hutterites I ever met, he and I...