Another good friend has passed . . .

Yesterday, at about 6PM, my friend Cate left this world for the next.  She was surrounded by friends, literally. They circled her bed and read the Epilogue of a Course in Miracles to her, recited the Lord’s Prayer and held hands as she took her final breath.  The epilogue states that the hovering angels are close at hand and that we will never be without comfort.  Cate loved “the course.”  And she particularly loved the epilogue that follows the 365 workbook lessons.  Sending her “home” with those words softly touching her ears is a sweet image for those of us who couldn’t be present last evening.

Cate has been a friend of mine for nearly twenty-five years.  We met in the rooms of the fellowship and our friendship was strengthened in a “course” circle that met in my home.  She was a great friend to many, a very present sponsor to many too.  She was serious about her recovery and her commitment to the recovery of others. She had worked for a time for the Hazelden Foundation Treatment Center in MN following the completion of her Masters Degree in Counseling.  She had to quit when she developed a brain tumor which was followed by lung cancer.  But she never quit being the ever-present friend, sponsor, and support person for so many.

I found myself thinking all evening of Cate being met on the next leg of the journey we will all make by Joy, a mutual friend, a woman who Cate had dearly loved.  And by Ray who died just a few weeks ago and Tom, too, who passed in early November.  Cate had been at the memorial for Ray and had told me all about it.  I had known Ray since my first month in Alcoholics Anonymous in 1976.  Like Joy and Tom too, Ray was a dear presence in the lives of so many.  I love to think that all three of these loving spirits met her as she approached the “other-side.”

Some may read this and think I am addle-brained but it gives me great comfort to believe that our spirits go on, that in fact they go on to complete other work, one of “those jobs” being to welcome those who follow them into the next life.  Having the belief in angels, those in skins and those who need them no longer, is one of the best “awarenesses” I have committed to since turning my life and my will over to a Power greater than myself.  How blessed I feel.  How blessed all of us are who knew Cate.  I heard recently that Steve Jobs’ last words before passing were, “Wow. Wow.”   I like to think that Cate knows what he meant.