Shortly after we moved to Shepherdstown and had settled on St. Agnes as our church of choice, one Saturday evening we sat down by a distinguished looking gentleman and I asked if this was the “sinners pew.” He smiled and said it was and that we were welcome to sit there. That distinguished gentleman was John King.
As soon as Mass ended, he said, “it was nice to meet you, but I’ve got to go — my dog is sick.” I didn’t know it at the time, but John was the ultimate dog lover. That became apparent to me shortly after we had met…. one day after church, John had hurried out the door because he had to take care of his dog. His wife, Barbara, played the organ at church and she came by where we were standing and I said, “ so John left you on your own — he must think the dog is more important than you are.” Barbara said that was a much truer statement than I knew. She told me that John thought that if you’re not happy single, you won’t be happy married — that happiness comes from dogs, not relationships. We laughed about that occasionally, but the fact is John really did love dogs.
Over the years we had a number of discussions about whether or not dogs go to heaven. These were serious discussions — it was a very important subject to John. I grew up in Billy Graham country, and I remember that once he was asked if he thought there would be dogs in Heaven. His response was something like, “I think God will have prepared everything for our perfect happiness. If it takes my dog being there (in Heaven,) I believe he’ll be there.” From what I can tell, the Bible doesn’t address the issue —it neither confirms nor denies dogs in Heaven. Probably the best advice is for us to just love our pets and trust God in everything for the future.
But back to John…. there’s an old saying that in life, it’s not what you know, but who you know that counts. When I first heard that, I thought it was probably true — if you knew the right people, they could open doors for you and give you a leg up over your competition, etc. But as I’ve grown older but wiser (at least older) I still believe it’s true, but for different reasons. Who you know refers to people that you play golf with, have a beer with, laugh with, cry with, celebrate with you when you’re happy, console you in times of trouble, make you happy when you’re with them — they’re the people that count — they’re your friends. John was one of those “who’s” in our lives. Friends are like the family you choose and losing a good friend like John is like losing a family member…. leaving us to grieve his passing with the memories he gave, the good that he did and our time together.
I’ve heard it said that our friends never truly leave us — there are things that death can’t touch.
I never liked the idea of mourning death — I think it’s much better to celebrate the life of the person gone. So today, on this St. Patrick’s Day, my thoughts are simple — John will be missed. His family, friends, Shepherd and St. Agnes have lost a dear friend. Go in peace John, you’ve earned your sleep. And as the Irish might say — until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand.
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