This is a goodbye - well not a goodbye I hope, but an Au Revoir - to my comrade in the field service Jean, who died at the end of June.
We had many adventures together, including getting our car stopped by a stern young policeman on a motorbike.
Had he mistaken us for the notorious Zimmer Twins?! Notorious for robbing all the local banks - or they would be if they could only remember what it was they had gone to the bank for in the first place. I was just rolling the window down to confess (to whatever it was I must have done) and got as far as "I'm very sorry Officer", when he gave me a cold look and told me to stay where I was until the Very Large Load approaching in the distance had got safely past. He was its young Outrider.
On another occasion, a lady coming out of the carpark drove into our car while she was looking the other way. She was so distressed poor lady, but we comforted her and she took a Watchtower magazine. So it turned out very well - but only thanks to Jehovah.
And we also got lost on a fairly regular basis.
What with me concentrating on the road (I am a very nervous driver) and Jean (whose eyes were not what they were) map reading, we once found ourselves heading straight for Brighton at what felt like the speed of light - which is to say at over 30 miles an hour.
We were aiming for Angmering.
Then there was the time we rescued a moth from a spider's web - Jean untangling it, and me holding the spider back with a magazine (aagghh). Was that kindness to moths, or cruelty to spiders? I don't know. Surely there will be no such dilemmas when the whole earth has become the paradise of peace it was always meant to be.
And there were our two big epic adventures - which have probably turned up in a couple of my previous blogs: THE GATE and THE LOST CAT.
The Gate was a security gate at the end of a long gravel path - this was some time ago when Jean and I could both walk. It was very large and very locked so I pressed a button on the intercom/bell system hoping to announce ourselves, but to our surprise the Gate swung open. We went through and it creaked slowly and eerily shut behind us.
We were faced with a long drive, with a turning. Round the turning was a mansion. We rang the bell of its imposing door, but there was no-one home. I waved a Watchtower magazine at the Security camera so they could see who had been calling and we trudged off back to the gate - the gate that was shut and locked with Jean and me on the inside.
We stood there looking at it. How on earth did we get out? Even in our climbing days (long gone), it would have been an impossibility. And if the owners were wintering in Spain... I was just imagining them coming back after months away to find two skeletal forms lying in their drive, faded copies of The Watchtower clutched in their hands when we spotted a discreet button, pressed it, and the gate creaked open. And we escaped.
The story of the Cat is in this blogpost:
And I would want to add that we got that cat back to its owner only because we both prayed to our Creator, Jehovah. It was set on freedom and had eluded the young men chasing it, who had given up, leaving Jean, me, and its very elderly owner (in his jimjams) trying to keep track of it among all the gardens.
Jean was a real people person, a convivial soul - the exact opposite of me, so she was a good partner on the doors. As my politely-made offer of a magazine was (usually equally politely) refused and I was about to leave, Jean would chime in with an open-sesame: the word "grandchildren" - or in her later years "great grandchildren" - and Hey Presto! we would be invited in for cups of tea, cosy chats, photos and anecdotes - and could leave behind a Bible-based publication, packed with life-saving information. And we usually got an invitation to come again.
Her regular calls were all very fond of her and she was very fond of them. And when I can get myself out I shall have to try to make the rounds and tell them why she will not be calling again. I have the phone number of one kind and hospitable lady we used to call on who has kept in contact all during the pandemic, and I let her know straight away. She was very sorry to hear it. She always used to ask us in and make us lovely coffee - so welcome on a cold winter Witnessing day!
Like me, Jean was a great reader. Although reading is one of the pleasures she lost to old age as her eyes deteriorated so badly.
And even though she was in her nineties, and therefore had what "the world" would like us to feel was "a good innings", Jean so much wanted to know what was going to happen next. She did not want to leave, even though she was so frail and in constant pain.
She would have loved to be joining us at the current online Convention.
However, I am so relieved that the long painful struggle of old age is over for her, and above all that she remained faithful to Jehovah, trusting in him to the end.
So I know she has the most wonderful awakening ahead - when the time comes for the resurrection.
Here is a promise from Jehovah, who cannot and who does not lie, and whose every purpose is fulfilled:
“Your dead will live.
My corpses will rise up.
Awake and shout joyfully,
You residents in the dust!
For your dew is as the dew of the morning,
And the earth will let those powerless in death come to life."
Isaiah 26:19
Jean now sleeps safe in "the everlasting arms", safe in God's memory, and when the time comes for the resurrection, Jehovah will wake her from the dreamless sleep of death.
She will wake up feeling so refreshed. She will probably think that she must have had a really good night's sleep, she will feel so well, so full of energy. Then she will realise that she has never felt so well in her life!
She will see this lovely earth again, and will have endless life stretching before her. It will be more joyful, more interesting than we can now imagine.
And if I too can endure faithfully to the end, as Jean did, I will see her again, when the time comes.
The Zimmer Twins will ride again! Although there will be no need for Zimmers in the restored earthly paradise.
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