All Souls Day

In the Anglican Christian tradition, November 2 is All Souls Days, a signal to remember those who have died while trusting that death has been trampled down and has no permanent dominion (whatever that may mean.)

This year I'm remembering two of my first cousins, Stefanie Stevens who left this world in September and James Kent Averill Jr. who died over a decade ago. Here they are as a couple of attractive babies in 1937. So young, so innocent. I look at this picture and realize the Second World War had not yet begun. James' father, a Navy officer, was killed in the Pacific in that war.

I didn't really know either of them -- I was ten or more years younger and so out of sync with their lives. Thinking about them reminds me that we are all part of a procession of sparks, some flaming longer than others, none burning forever unless in some sense beyond our grasp.