Dear Friends,
I report with sadness that Sandy Kidd, who served as deacon at Christ Church, Ironton, died quietly last Sunday evening. She had been admitted to Bellefonte Hospital two weeks ago with an infection that had become septic.
Most of you will remember Sandy from the two years she spent with us at Calvary as an intern preparing for ordination to the diaconate in the Diocese of Southern Ohio. This gentle soul made many friends here, most especially members of our Seekers group, with whom she continued relationship, occasionally attending meetings and corresponding through Facebook.
I phoned Sandy on Saturday to see if she might be up to a visit from the Seekers on Sunday. When she told me that she was scheduled for a heart procedure that morning, I suggested that we put off the visit to the following week, but Sandy was insistent that we come that Sunday evening. We found her seemingly much recovered, though we knew she was still not out of the woods. Carol Greene had sent with us flowers from the altar, and Sandy was delighted.
I now understand our visit as a precious gift to Sandy. We laughed, we prayed, and she shared with us some of the private distress of her ordeal. But she also shared that she had reached a place of peace. She had recognized that God had been with her through it all: through the weeks building to her hospitalization, when she hadn’t known how ill she was; through the unremembered first week in intensive care; through the care of workers she did not know and who did not know her. God had been there, he continued to be present, and she had delivered both her life and her death fully into his hands.
Our gift was the gift of presence, of witness to her pain and her peace, of listening and laughing during these last precious hours of her life. And in the Holy Spirit’s wisdom, she returned the gift to us in her own witness to God’s grace.
A visitation will be held at Christ Church, 5th and Park streets in Ironton, at 11 AM on Friday, June 8, with a celebration of Sandy’s life following at noon. The Rt. Rev. Tom Breidenthal (Diocese of Southern Ohio) will preside. A light lunch will follow the service. All are welcome. Please hold in prayer Sandy’s family; her partner, Deb Hagerty; and The Rev. Sallie Schisler and the people of Christ Episcopal Church, Ironton.
Wishing you every blessing,
Mtr. TJ