The Briar Philosopher - When Giants Fall

It is never happy news to learn that someone has passed. Some deaths impact us more than others, however, and some deaths leave an entire community reeling between grief and disbelief. When the news came to me that our beloved Joyce Marks had left this earth, I just sat and stared at the notification for what seemed like hours. By “ours” I mean far more than the Boy and I, of course. Though our sorrow is deep, it is difficult to imagine the depth of the sorrow her family must navigate. Even knowing she had been seriously unwell following a broken hip and a subsequent stroke, it seemed that the whole of Jackson County was on its knees, both figuratively and literally, seeking to keep her here with us. To lose such a giant from our midst seemed unthinkable and seems unthinkable still, though think of it we must. 

To say that we are all poorer for losing her is equally as true as saying we were all made richer for knowing her. I have known a few people in my life who truly put service to others at the center of their lives but I think I have not known anyone who walked that on a daily basis with the dedication and energy Joyce put into it. I never knew her to judge or pay insult to anyone. Her heart was open to all. I did not know her well in her daily life but all the evidence I have seen points to the fact that she meant, with everything in her, to treat “the least of these” with the same dignity, love, and respect she felt for the man who uttered those word in the first place. It was he who beseeched us all to give to those who hunger, who thirst, who want for clothing, for visitation, for love. The people society would cast out and put aside Joyce opened her arms and her heart to without hesitation. She worked tirelessly for the good of others.

Though her stature was small, her spirit knew no bounds.  It reached, and no doubt reaches still, to the place where our better angels dwell. She leaves behind a legacy of love that is hard to match in this world. She also leaves behind a void that no one of us can fill. Such is the way of giants. We can, however, collectively fill that void. If each and every one of us who loved her would seek to embody the lesson her life gave us, if each of us could seek to bring 1/100th of the good into the world that she brought, that void would overflow and bloom in abundance, touching everyone around us. 

Our hearts break for her children and for her grandchildren, for ourselves and for each other. 

She loved her family so; her children of birth and of love, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and the family she made of all of us. The Boy and I saw her just weeks ago when she came to the office to renew their subscriptions for her children. She did that every year. She carried that same strength and that same joy she carried every time I’d ever seen her. It may be strange but I  know many will understand. Every time I saw her, whether she saw me or not, it was a blessing to me. Knowing the goodness she contained reminded me that goodness is a real and present thing, even when the world seems so lacking in love and compassion at times. 

When I spoke with one of her daughters-in-love just yesterday I said that what Joyce set in motion here would spin for a long long time. She embodied that sense of hope and love and generosity of spirit in her children and they in turn have embodied it in theirs and so on and so forth for generations yet to come. She taught the rest of us what it means to pray with our feet and with our hands, to get up off our knees and be moved by the love we have been given, and for the gift paid for by a carpenter whose humble love changed the world forever. 

She would scoff at me for calling her a giant. She also embodied the humility and grace that kept her from thinking too highly of herself. For her, what she did was nothing that she felt called for pride. To her, it was simply what one should do and she wanted no praise or recognition for it. 

She may yet haunt me for casting her in a light that seems too haughty. I would welcome the visitation and even the scolding to see her again, to be blessed by the light of that smile. 

We mourn with her family, but neither they nor we will let her life be a cause for mourning alone. We must all make an effort to keep the lesson of her life at the forefront of our own. If we do so, she remains among us. For love that keeps growing knows no past tense. That love will continue to grow if we let it move us to open our own hearts and minds to the needs of the least of these and to do something to change their lives for the better. It was this to which she dedicated her life, to be in service to others. It is this that will make a better world for all if we carry on in her footsteps. 

Thank you, dear Joyce, for the gift that you were/are/will always be to this woman, to this community and to a larger world as well. You hold a place in all of our hearts that will never be devoid of your love. I could never find all the words needed to express your reflection in my soul. You were a giant indeed. We lived not in your shadow, but in your light.