God Gives Rest

God Gives Rest

John 14:18King James Version (KJV)

¹⁸ I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

 

          My heart broke yesterday, it literally shattered into pieces.  I was faced with an unexpected death of a very dear friend.  I looked at Facebook and began to read a post from another dear friend.  She stated that we had lost another dear friend and at the end of this sentence read Joseph Waden.  My eyes began to swell up with tears.  I called my friend Sheala Bourda and as she answered the phone she said “I knew you were going to call me”.  Once again true friendship built on solid foundations last forever.  I hadn’t talk to Sheala since Makaylah Mae passed away but we always talk as if we had just hung up hours earlier. She gave me the details or rather all that she knew, we hung up and we both cried.  I know I did and I know she did as well. 

          I immediately called my other long time friend Sugenia, and once I told her that Joe had passed there was a silence.  “Sugenia just call me back”, She was crying.  Honestly it’s not that we saw Joe yesterday or even had talked to him recently.  But over our years growing up and even into our adult life; we had establish such a bond that this news hurt deeply.  Each of us in our own way was devastated.

          Joe was my friend, I honestly loved Joe.  He had the most beautiful smile.  He could make us laugh, a true life of the party.  A fun loving guy and a wonderful father to his son Nick.  So many memories of Joe.  Remember that time Sheala when the word was out that Joe was missing.  Man our world had turn upside down for a moment.  Not going to say where he was but we got so mad at him, only because we loved him.  I remember I was lying on my mom’s couch one Sunday and opening my eyes to see Joe outside the door, I screamed before I realize who he was.  He was just stopping by to say hello because he hadn’t seen me in a while.  We grew up in an era when people truly cared about each other. Joe was caring.

          Sugenia shared with me how she always got at least a three to four time a year phone call from Joe especially around her birthday.  That’s who Joe was, always thinking of others and rarely of himself.  There is not much of anything that could have kept our tears from flowing over the news of Joe’s passing.  We thought that many more years would pass and somebody would mention something about Joe.

          To my friend Joseph Waden, thank you for all the laughs.  Thank you for that smile that lit up a room, thank you for coming to see about me and bringing me a bag of lays chips when I said I was hungry.  Thank you for helping me understand how to work my TV with cable.  Thank you for giving Tasha twenty dollars at the gas station for graduation.  Thank you for being my neighbor when we both were leasing houses on Coolwood St.  Thank you for calling to say stop by on your way out someone is over here you may remember and yes it was Roderick Arms; Roderick thank you for being at Joe’s that day so I could see you when you came down from Atlanta.  Joe thank you for stopping by moms to do some electrical work for her just because I called and asked.   I remember calling you when your mom died, we talked and even laughed, I remember Michael Below had answered your phone that day pretending to be you. Joe thank you for being you, my friend Joe. 

          True friendships never die, no matter where we find ourselves in life.   The news of Joe’s passing was a shock for us; but not to God.  God had given him an appointment he couldn’t break.  Death is only the absence of life from the body, but a forever presence with God.  I know you have a big smile on your face in heaven and all the pain you once suffered is no more.  Those of you who knew Joe Waden life were made the better.  We will miss our friend Joe Waden, but we have memories that will never be erased.

          So let me just say this to all those friends who have meant the world to me over the years Linda White, Sheala Bourda, Elaine Jackson, Anita Robinson, Sugenia Stewart, Myrtle Freeman, Debra Edwards, Kay Claiborne, Alfredio Reed, Yovanda Ross, Willard Taylor, I love you.  I would cry for each of you, you made growing up special. No matter what rode we find ourselves just know my life was made the better because of the special times we have shared.   We will say goodbye to Joe Waden presences on earth; but he will forever be in our hearts. 

I wrote this poem at the news of my favorite poet Maya Angelou’s passing.  I put it in my brother’s obituary and now I want to share it again for all of you.  Rest well my friend…………………..I pray God’s comfort for Joe’s family and to all of us who loved him.

 

Rest

It is as if the world stood still

A moment froze in time

No sound of water rippling through a stream

For peace possess my mind

I lay alone, my time to rest

A cloud beneath my head

My thoughts my dreams

Of pleasant things

My life is at its best

It is as if the world stood still

Of a time only I could know

As I have laid in a bed of peace

Like sand upon the shore

Escape the scorns of worldly test

My eyes are gently closed

As the scent of roses fills the air

My worries are no more………I rest