Saturday, November 4, 2017
Jenny and I learned of Phyllis’ passing from Wayne and Bertha, grateful to them for the news, sad for her children (my cousins), grandchildren and their spouses at her passing from the earth, and confident beyond measure that she has "passed into glory."
I was especially close to Phyllis, spending a month every summer in Truro with my Grandparents when I was in my early teens and she was in her late teens. I shared a bedroom with her, to the envy of the boarders down the hall. I learned to dance from her, and "everything I knew about women" as a young man I learned from her. I was an usher at her marriage to Lachlan and had dinner with her occasionally in Dartmouth after work when I visited Halifax from Montreal. Jenny and I visited with her every time we were in Nova Scotia in adult life; I was there alone once a few years ago, slept at her place and visited, talking far, far into the night. More recent visits were at the Magnolia Home.
Phyllis was a model of belief and living what our church understands as the gospel of Christ in a changing world, surely a strength to her family, her congregation and all with whom she came into contact. We consulted on the phone during occasional church turmoil as she would check on "exactly what we believe and why" prior to going into some meeting. There may be understandable sorrow in the family but there will be rejoicing in the "Kindom of God" as she sometimes called it, a dimension beyond our imagining but where we will all be reunited in the Oneness of Divinity beyond time and place.
(Rev.) Brian Arthur Brown
