Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Adieu, uncle Leif


My very best uncle Leif has had a massive brain hemorrhage a week ago, and is now waiting to meet the Lord and his earthly family in Heaven.
His wife and three children are waking by his side 24/7.

We are all mourning, hundreds and hundreds of Sunday school pupils, nieces and nephews, athletics, alcoholics and their families, the sick, sailors and foreigners he met through his work, the poor and the elderly.

We were all time after time touched by his smile, his sincere concern, his extraordinary charm and vivid enthusiasm.
To me the greatest moments were in Sunday school when he would engage a class of 150 pupils so that neither would ever forget their way to heaven.
Now he is about to finish his race, and I know there'll be a happy crowd to welcome him.
Last year he followed my Dad step by step on his way to heaven. They comforted each other that they soon were going to wear again the beautiful rose-pullovers they got for Christmas as small boys. The grown-ups laughed at the little brethren who wondered if they might wear those beautiful pullovers in Heaven. When my grandma passed away a few years after and left them motherless as small schoolboys, they still were comforted by the thought of the reunion in their rose-pullovers.

He left quietly at 02.15 this afternoon, April 10th.
All of his nearest and dearest family gathered around him.
We borrowed my uncle, they owned him.

These are all songs loved by my uncle.
The two first with traditional Sunday school illustrations.
Rock of Ages with Bob Dylan, cause my uncle's eldest grandson is a famous rocker here in Norway. My uncle was very proud of him.
I should also add You are My sunshine, which uncle Leif sung and played harmonica to in Serina's confirmation party, to fill out the many colored picture of this unique man.
Uncle, we love you.
Gunnar, Serina and Elise