WalterandLouise

WalterandLouise

My Godfather, Walter Hannum, died yesterday morning in California.  He lived a long and full life and was ready, I’m sure, to meet his Creator and rest, finally, in that heavenly peace.  Walter and his wife, Louise, were not present at my baptism, which took place in Shageluk, Alaska, a small Athabascan Indian village on the Innoko River.  My father baptized me in September, 1971, and perhaps only a handful of villagers were in attendance.  But Walter and Louise, who had no children of their own, were faithful Godparents, and I know I was only one of countless children whose spiritual care had been entrusted to them.  They have written to and prayed for me all my life, and they made the trip East when I married Stew, in 2000.  It was one of the small handful of visits I had with them in person, yet they were ever-present, always “WalterandLouise.”
 

I’ve needed a lot of praying for sometimes.  Walter and Louise were like parents to my parents, rocks from which they drew strength.  Together, and with many others, they formed a circle of love around me, a warm, golden, flowing love that sustains me – that’s what baptism brings us into.  We open our arms and say “Come in – we are here waiting for you. We love you – come in!”  Whether we know it or not, whether we go to church regularly or not, that love is always there.  In my life there have been times I’ve gone to church and times I haven’t.  There have been times when I was too anxious to stay through a whole service, and times I sat in a back pew and couldn’t stop crying.  But wherever I went and wherever I go now, I know it’s true.  My parents gave me that, Walter and Louise gave me that, the people in the churches I grew up in gave me that, the knowledge that I am truly and deeply loved, by them, and more importantly, by God.

We are doing that at St. Mark’s for our children and each other, welcoming each other in, welcoming each other back, welcoming each other if we haven’t had a church home for a while, or ever, until now.  The children sense it, feel it, depend on it, BRING it in ways we may have forgotten we know.  Walter’s death into new life has reminded me of that.  Who is your WalterandLouise?  Whose WalterandLouise are you?

Bess