Mary, Mary

Mary, Mary

I am just one small part of a large group of people that got to know you, appreciate you, and love you.

Ahhhh... so soon, so early, so young.

We do miss you terribly! And it's only been three days. But for many of us it has been less than 24 hours since we learned about your life prematurely ending. We do trust that your soul, your vibrant spirit is with God, and you are now with your loved ones on the other side of the veil.

All this pandemia has made us more estranged than normal, too.

A few of us, a somewhat large group but smaller in the great scheme of things, who knew you, grieve your passing, Mary. Sister Donnery. We are many friends and loved ones, in some ways, and we range across the globe now, learning of your last days this mid June, thinking and reflecting on the last shared years of our lives and the life that you led and the times that we shared with you.

You died of heart complications at the hospital. Tuesday? June 16? Your brothers came down from New York or New Jersey to help you. They are figuring out your final vestiges and belongings, today Friday, as church members are trying to help and gauge your loss... I have learned about your history with some heart problems from a friend last night who knows medical issues well; now that we know that this is what has cost you your mortal sojourn, thus far half way through the June of the world virus shut down of 2020.

You turned 56 in April, just two pandemic months ago. I last saw you at church on a sunny Sunday in March; you were attending the other ward (congregation) that met a little later than us that warm, pleasant morning. Some have thought that maybe it was easier for you to attend an hour and a half later if you were having health problems? I remember thinking maybe you liked to be with some of the dear friends of the other ward more... Variety is a good thing, no matter what. Having options is nice...

You opted into joining our faith, some 9 years ago. I was trying to remember if you became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2010 or 2011, in the Ashburn Stake of northern Virginia. The Relief Society, the fellowship of sisters, in my Sterling Park Ward confirmed it was 2011 when you joined, in an email sent this morning. Ah, that was a good year. I remember seeing you come to church and engaging with us, but the memories have been blurred by time. However, what has not faded are the wondrous and tender feelings of your friendship, personality, and good character.

In our faith, if I may explain, like many of other religions we take efforts and sometimes pains, we even put ourselves in awkward positions to invite and assist others to "come and see" the goodness of Jesus Christ, His Gospel, His Good News, which means salvation, both spiritual and physical, and as a community we try to be there for you, in this case Mary, or anyone else who shows an interest in believing what we preach and try to live. We believe we are literally and in spirit following the Great Commission of the Savior by doing so. He is our Everything, and paid for all of our sins: how can we not obey His words and follow His example, and shine His light as we can?

Mary lived a couple houses from our home, the one we moved into as a family a year and half before she affiliated with us this in a congregation composed of rather large neighborhoods that covered half of Sterling for many miles by width and length; not only were we brothers and sisters in the faith, at worship and classes and social activities, but we were literally neighbors. My girls would watch her cat by crossing the street when Mary went on trips. My wife and children could visit with you on easy outings. My daughter performed yard work and pruning, of which she has fond memories. Countless full time missionaries, sisters and elders, and the rest of us members would come by and feel welcomed and share with you sweet moments and memories. R. Hay and I helped move a very large hutch from outgoing Sister C. Rands, with a little extra muscle from others, into your dining room, maybe two summers ago. Many people have come and gone and been touched by your spirit, your hospitality, your cheerful demeanor.

In 2011 my church calling was as ward missionary, along with others of my congregation like our ward mission leader D. Price, who lived another seven or eight blocks to the west of us, where we were located at the edge of Sugarland. I am not sure if the full time missionaries tracted into Mary by knocking her door; "tracting" is what we refer to when our young missionaries go wandering or searching, inviting and preaching door to door to find potential converts that would be interested in knowing more of our beliefs, and acting on the faithfully zealous invitations of faith to come to our church, accept the covenants of membership, and integrate into our community of faith and practice. No small thing. It often requires a change of many previous beliefs, habits, practices, schedules or commitments, often trying adaptations of social circles and tastes in all types of possible worldly pleasures like alcohol or tobacco. My own parents made such changes in their lives as adults when 15 to 20 years younger than Mary at the age she was baptized into our church.

And, Mary embraced this faith, our ward, our stake, or group of congregations, she accepted and magnified her callings, loving and serving and welcoming the people, our families, sharing our homes, our leaders, the classes, the parties, the activities and service, and the temple, which is our highest and holiest way of serving, communing with God, sealing ourselves to God and Jesus and one another, as one great throng of Zion and God's children.

I would see Mary at church on Sunday seated near the back as she usually did and I would say, "Hello, neighbor." She always had kind and fun things to share.

She reminded me of my mother, a strong and energetic woman from the northeast United States who moved away from her home region, winding up in her community of love and service, where they thrived. A mover and a force who became one of the Saints of the Latter-days.

Mary, Mary. Sister neighbor. We had good classes, we had good worship services, we had many get-togethers, parties, meals, and special missionary meetings as later you were a ward missionary as I became the ward mission leader. You ended up sharing and teaching classes, leading and loving others in and outside the faith, like you loved and served your beloved Primary youth. 

You were a bright light among us, and we welcomed your glow.

There are other memories, specific and general, that I could recount about Mary Donnery; my mind races and slows to recall so many different conversations, laughs, chores, stories, ideas, foods, visits, inspirations that we poor earthly brother and sister shared in the greater Sugarland neighborhood, the chapel by Sully Elementary, or even the trips to Kensington to the temple of  eternal covenants, the great majestic edifice with the towering spires that point to heaven where we all aspire to climb, to link to our kindred dead and ancestors. We are all one human family, thus we come together to be linked by spiritual bonds of God's priesthoods, going back and forward thousands of years as far as the mind reach. But we are more than material brother and sister Mary, of an earthly chapel and time covenant in the 21st century. We are spiritual siblings, children of an Everlasting parentage.

You chose baptism, entering in to the portal where Christ has promised all of His spiritual children that they have set path on the way to His Father; you chose to be confirmed through the Holy Ghost and by the authority of the priesthood of God, to become one with the Saints, the followers of the Master, the Commander of the Tempests and the Redeemer of All. You chose to be washed and anointed and accept the holiest priesthoods of the temple, you chose to be awakened in the First Resurrection, you chose to submit to God's will and take up the Cross of His Son. You chose to inherit our Heavenly Father's mansions above, to mourn with those that mourn, succor your brothers and sisters, and take joy in the Kingdom of Our Heavenly Family, here and beyond. You suffered the little children to come unto you.

You made it this far, Mary! We congratulate you! Well done, thou good and faithful servant!

The mortal will take on the immortal, as you have now taken this next step to achieve the ultimate state of perfection in God, the Father, and with your Mother in Heaven, with all their Children: you and me and all those who choose to repent of our weaknesses and imperfections, those who you have known and loved, those of our family and kin who proceeded you, many of whom you knew in your youth and have passed on as you aged, those who humbled themselves and accepted God's will, and they that meekly turned to Him. These souls you met on earth in your lifetime. But, so many more await who proceeded you and your parents and grandparents going back into the millennia past the apostles and prophets of Moses and Abraham and Noah and Enoch, back to the first parents, our first family heads, Adam and Eve.

Your bright star, temporarily dimmed in this late spring of 2020, will find its vigor in the next plane of spiritual paths and journeys. You are going where we want to be; we will join you there in due time. Your bright star is with us now ethereally in our hearts and minds forever, but this is only a temporary physical good-bye, Mary, where in this darkened moment your body has lost its luster; for we shall see you and hug you and kiss you again, in the flesh and in its full vigor. We will laugh together, the community of Saints with you and your happy spirit in the times warmly recollected upon this terrestrial plane, yes, but we will again smile and rejoice one with another once more at Jesus' feet, in the grandiose, awesome, unending and infinite celestial realm. There is no end to being, there is no end to life.

Till we meet again, Mary. Till we meet at Jesus' feet.

Like Him, the Lowliest and Greatest of them All, you loved the children. You put your love and passion into serving God; He counts and exalts those that Love Him and His Son; He has promised you eternal life and glory.

Well done!

Thank you for your cheeriness and ebullient spirit and marvelous will and grace.

Thank you so much for letting us be part of you, and you being part of us.

You have helped make us whole, as God has intended it. Your glowing shine has brightened us forever.

I look forward to seeing you in that favorite row at the back of church, sooner than any of us can imagine. There are many more living, us survivors, who look back at you in Virginia, in Maryland, from New York, in New Mexico, or  from Utah, or California, and dozens of other points of the map; they think of you now, and they ponder on into the future and hope and long for that bright, brilliant day of endless sunshine where we shall be together once more.

Jesus had his everlasting word for you, recorded so simply and eloquently in the holy scriptures:

"Mary."

You are His and He is yours; thanks to His Plan we will be together again, beyond the infinite heavens and sun basked or storm darkened skies. In light or dark times, your welfare is secure.

Thank you, Mary. You have given your all and we forever love you for it.