Eulogy for my sister Janice, whose funeral is tomorrow

One of the most powerful memories I have of Janice is when I came to visit her one weekend in Gorleston. I think she’d only just moved there, and we went out for a walk to plant a sapling oak tree. She’d grown it from an acorn, and it was just a few inches high. We found a place to plant it, dug a hole, and there was the tree’s home. It had been given a start in life, and it was her act that facilitated it.

And that was how she lived her life: with the principle of giving life, and establishing life, wherever she could. Not with any real concern for herself: her reward, like the reward of any truly altruistic act, was in the giving of love itself.

It’s been said that love is the only thing you get more of by giving away, and Janice was, and still is, a shining example of that. So many people loved Janice because she got on with the true, active business of loving others and loving nature itself. She didn’t ask for any reward, nor even appreciation. She recognized the job that needed doing, and just got on with it, quietly and uncomplaining. She was one of that great, silent army of caring people. And it’s the caring people like her who make the world bearable.

I’m physically several thousand miles away from this place today. But Janice is in my heart because she knew that real love is timeless, and extends infinitely. Love knows no bounds. She understands that I’m here, today, just as she’s with me in Texas. She knew that we’re all connected as spirits in this material world. I’m only sorry that she wasn’t able to see some of the natural beauty in her physical lifetime that I’ve seen in mine. Perhaps, though, I can help her spirit see through my eyes, as I endeavour to see the world through her eyes, and with something of her determined, caring heart.

We’ll always remember Janice because she was one of the standard-bearers of love.
Now it’s up to every one of us – if we choose – to follow her example. Because what would the world be like without people like her? A bleak one, for sure.

She recognized her duty to life, and to the planet, her family, society, and to whatever mystery this existence is.

I, for one, thank her for her life and all the principles she stood by. Every one of us has been touched by her in some positive way.

So I can say with absolute pride that she was my sister.