A couple of important people died recently. One was Michael Jackson. The other was Ruth Myers.
You don’t know Ruth Myers? Let me introduce her – she was my mother-in-law.
Ruth was 97 when she passed on June 20th in Pennsylvania.
Mom was not wealthy or a celebrity like Michael. I want to tell you, though, that her family loved her. People stood up at the two funeral services for her on June 23rd and extolled her virtues – Godly, family-oriented, and hardworking.
No excuses needed for the way she lived. No embarrassments for things she may have done.
Michael? That certainly will not be the case with him.
I was one of many who liked the high-energy music that Michael produced in the beginning. The more I learned about his lifestyle, however, the less appealing his music became as a result. Those hideous attempts at plastic surgery and the sordid details of a creepy lifestyle revealed him to be someone searching for happiness in all the wrong places.
Unlike Michael, Ruth discovered what the truly good life was all about. Her secret was a relationship with God that opened her to His directing. She had Someone to guide her along.
Michael, in my opinion, lived a very troubled, misguided life. He achieved the wealth and fame that so many in our culture mistakenly long for but predictably, neither satisfied him for very long.
My mother-in-law, Ruth Myers, knew what real happiness was all about. She did not fear death because she knew she was going to heaven. She died loved to the end by her family.
I grieve over Michael’s passing because his family has experienced a loss and will miss him.
I also grieve as part of Ruth’s family because I will miss her too. However, I also rejoice over Ruth’s passing because I know that she has gone to a better place and that I will be with her someday.
( This was sent out as a letter to the editor. It appeared in The Bridgton News on July 2, 2009 and The Newburyport Daily News on July 6, 2009.)
McClelland Miscellanea 