Funeral homily for Zannie Dowling Scheel

Zannie Scheel’s funeral homily

November 29, 2022

 

        Zannie Scheel was an extraordinary soul.  Her grandchildren captured this sentiment when they would say, “She’s the funniest and craziest lady we ever met!”  Zannie’s best friend Bertie Skinner illustrates it when she tells the story of when she went to see her friend in the hospital after just delivering daughter Lolly.  Bertie was expecting her first child, Trey, and she describes that visit by saying, “There’s Zannie sitting up with all her gold jewelry on, and she says, ‘Oh Bertie, there’s nothing to it!  It’s like stumping your big toe!’”  Lolly captures it as she recalls the times in her childhood when Zannie would be missing her during the school day, so she’d drive over to Country Day, and tell them she was there to take Lolly to a doctor’s appointment.  She’d check her out and they’d go and get chocolate nut Sundaes and go to the mall and enjoy the adventure of being together. 

        Being with Zannie was like standing in a warm, gentle ray of sunlight on a cool day.  She was delighted and delightful, truly, authentically herself, and she invited that authenticity from those around her.  Zannie truly loved people, and she knew how to shine the light of her attention on people to make them feel sincerely good.  It was her gift to make people feel cherished, and when you were with her, she gave you her full attention; she was fully present with you in that moment.  She loved life; life was like a party for her, a grand adventure. 

        And here’s what’s so phenomenal about Zannie.  She was someone who was so vibrant, so active, whose life changed so dramatically in an instant; and yet she was her same authentic, joy-filled, radiant self, cherishing people and shining the light of her love on them just as fully after her life-altering accident as she was before.  She had a tremendous impact on the community at Azalealand where she lived for almost 2 years, and it was in testament to this that so many of her caregivers there came to pay their respects to her in her final days. 

        Our burial service lifts up the importance of our remembering the connection between what we do here this day as we remember and give thanks for Zannie and how that is connected with Jesus’s resurrection from the dead at Easter.  We gather and remember, even in the midst of our grief, that death is not the end, but a change.  We lift up the hope of the resurrection, the hope of Easter, that through Jesus’s death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, God has shown us, once and for all, that God’s love is stronger than absolutely anything, even death. 

        Even before she died, Zannie was already living into, growing into this new life of the resurrection.  Just think about it.  She experienced just about as much of a death a person can experience in this life—a complete change, loss of control and identity—and coming through that little death, she grew more deeply in love, rooting even more deeply into the beautiful soul God had created her to be, and spreading God’s love to others through the light of her lovely attention. 

What a wonderful gift she has given us, in showing us how to live a resurrection life, here and now!  And oh, how we miss this vibrant soul in our day to day lives. 

Even in the midst of our sadness, we give thanks.  We give thanks for Zannie, about how each of us is better for having known and been loved by her.  We give thanks for the inspiration of her life, how she showed us what it could look like to live a resurrection life, a life of hope, joy, and love, no matter what hardships we may endure, starting even now in this life.  And we give thanks for the hope of our faith and of God’s saving work through Jesus Christ, that we will see her again, as she welcomes us to join her in the last and best party, on the next great adventure in God’s eternal life. 

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