Funeral
Service for Hazel Lund
3/1/07
We are gathered
here to mourn the death and celebrate the life of Hazel Lucille Lund. If we
look to the Bible, there are many passages that bring us comfort. In 1
Corinthians 15, we read these words:
I declare to you brothers that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
This is our hope
today. Though we bury Hazel’s body, we claim the victory that comes
through Christ alone.
Hazel Lucille Lund was born Hazel Johnson on November
2, 1913 near Raritan,
She and her husband lived and farmed for 34 years
near Disco,
Hazel passed away Saturday, February 24, 2007 at 8:25
A.M. at the
She is survived by one daughter, Charlene (Homer)
Quigle of LaHarpe, two grandchildren, Jeffrey (Susie) Quigle of West Des
Moines, Iowa and Candy (Kurt) Kapischke of McKinney, Texas, four
great-grandchildren, Christopher and Kyle Kapischke and Abby and Claire Quigle,
one sister, Margaret Cratsenberg of LaHarpe and one cousin, Lee Carlson of Stronghurst,
Illinois.
She was preceded in death by her husband, two
sisters, Clarice Eckhardt and Dorothy Bowen and one brother, Kenneth Johnson.
Though
Hazel’s life on earth has ended, we have hope from the words of Jesus.
The day before Jesus died, he told his disciples:
“Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God,
believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were
not so, would I have told you that I go and prepare a place for you? And when I
go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself,
that where I am you may be also. You know the way to the place where I am
going…Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to
the Father except through me.”
Jesus tells us that
even though we are sinful and are deserving of hell, he has made it possible
for us to have a place in heaven after we die. He assures us that our
salvation, our place in heaven, isn’t dependent upon anything that we do,
but rather on the fact that He has gone to prepare a place for us. If we trust
Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life, the only one who can forgive us of
our sins, he guarantees us that our eternal home is heaven.
Knowing Hazel, I
sense that she understood this fact, and trusted Jesus alone to forgive her of
her sins. I firmly believe that on Saturday when Hazel’s earthly life
ended, her new life began with Christ. While we mourn today that we will no
longer see Hazel, we can rejoice that she is now at home and not enslaved by
her earthly body an longer.
Will you pray with
me? Father, we bow before you this morning and honor you as the only one who
can determine the number of our days. You determine when we are born and when
it is time for us to die. You are also the only one who can forgive us for the
things we’ve done wrong. Father, today we mourn the loss of Hazel, but we
have assurance that if her faith was in you, she is now home. Help us to
remember and celebrate her earthly life and give us strength as we grieve. We
ask these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.
***********************************
Hazel Lund was a woman who liked to be
active. As a child she worked on
the farm. She milked cows, took
care of chickens, hogs and sheep.
She was right out there helping to drive the tractor.
She learned to drive when her brother moved
away and there was no one at home who could drive. She learned to drive on a Model
“T”.
Hazel was always close with her sisters:
Margaret, Dorothy, Clarice, and her brother Kenneth. She was also very close to her nephew
Rodney Cratsenberg. They were close
throughout their lives.
When Hazel married Buster she worked side by
side with her husband. She was a
person who always made sure the living room and the front bedroom looked extra
nice. She wanted to make a good
first impression. She was a good cook and homemaker. She liked to say, “There is a
place for everything and everything should be in its place”. She liked to say that even though that
wasn’t always true in her
life.
Hazel was active in the Disco United
Methodist Church. She helped
prepare for communion, lent a hand whenever a hand was needed, and even played
the piano now and again for Sunday School.
When Charlene started to date Homer, Hazel
and Buster thought of him as the son they never had. He was welcomed warmly into the
family. Hazel loved being a
Grandma. Grandma and Grandpa
visited Jeff and Candy every chance they had.
Jeff remembers when the family lived in
Burlington, on Sunnyside. Hazel was
always reminding Jeff not to play near the street. One day, Grandma Hazel wasn’t
doing exactly what toddler Jeff wanted, and he said, “If you don’t
take me to the Dime Store, I’m going to play in the street!” They went to the Dime Store.
Grandma loved to play games with the
kids. I understand that Jeff
didn’t like to lose.
When the Quigles moved to Disco, life for
Hazel was grand. It was great to
have the family so nearby. Candy remembers that every time she knew Grandma and
Grandpa were returning from Burlington she would run to the car to see what
they had purchased for her. She
remembers another time when she was sitting at Grandma’s nice vanity and
was putting on Grandma’s make-up and jewelry. As she was playing she spilled some
nail–polish-remover on the vanity.
She remembers that Grandma didn’t get mad, but she did “look
funny”. Candy used to help
Grandma dust the house . . . all except for two dolls that Grandma never wanted
her to touch.
Hazel and Buster had a regular Saturday
night ritual. They would head to
LaHarpe to get groceries, they would come home and then Lee and Peggy would
come by to pick them up. They would
all cram into the front seat of the truck and then go to the home of Kenneth
and Goldie to play SkipBo and Pitch.
It’s a wonderful memory.
Buster died while Homer and Charlene and the
kids were in Florida at DisneyWorld.
Buster had chest pains so Hazel brought him into the hospital in
LaHarpe. After he was settled she
went back home to take care of some chores and as she got home the phone was
ringing. It was Dr. Mueller. Buster had died. Hazel was beside herself. Fortunately, Rodney happened to come by
at just that time.
Hazel never had the chance to say good-bye
to her husband. Following Buster’s death, Hazel never would go back into
the house. Her grief overwhelmed
her for awhile. She didn’t
want to do anything. She moved in with Homer, Charlene, Jeff and Candy after
Buster’s death. In 1980 they
moved to town into a bigger home.
Hazel didn’t want to stay home alone .
. . especially at night. So she
often spent time with her sisters.
Andrea, Heather and T.J. remember fun conversations with Dorothy and
Aunt Hazel. When Dorothy had cancer
Hazel was there to help and lend support to Peggy until Dorothy’s death.
I suspect it wasn’t always easy having
mom live with her but Charlene and Homer treated mom with respect and honor as
part of their immediate family for almost 30 years. When Hazel had to be put in the Nursing
home it was a very difficult decision and a very hard day. I think it is safe to say that I
can’t imagine a daughter and son-in-law (and family) who could have
treated a person better than Homer and Charlene treated Hazel.
Over the years friends were very kind. Roger and Marge Crum, John and Marilou
Fredrickson, and Bonnie and Owen Kendall of Burlington all always made it a
point to invite Hazel anytime they were inviting Homer and Charlene to do
anything. They were and are great
friends who will always be cherished for their love and kindness. Hazel also had a lot of fun with Tom and
Elie Koopmans also.
Hazel Lund was a woman of faith and a woman
who was filled with grace and compassion.
I can’t think of a single time when she came out of worship with
anything but a smile and a kind and gracious word. Even after she moved to the Nursing home,
where she had some mini-strokes that changed her personality, you could still
see that graciousness come out.
Even in the hospital last week, she was sure to thank the nurses for
their help (even if what they were doing wasn’t pleasant).
Hazel loved her God and she loved her
family. They also loved her. When you think about it, it’s hard
to think of a better epitaph than that.
I want to read to
you a text that I think brings great comfort in times of loss.
Now we know that if the earthly tent we live
in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not
built by human hands. (2 Corinthians 5:1)
Notice two
things. First, death is a normal
part of life. Paul was writing to
people about the reality that we all experience; people we love sometimes
die. Our bodies (or earthly tents)
wear out. That’s the way we
are designed. Death is not abnormal,
it is normal.
Certainly some
people die tragically but, apart from the possibility of the second coming of
Christ, we will all die. As we watched Hazel Lund we could see her dying. She became forgetful, she became
confused, at times she became unnaturally agitated. These were all signs that her body was
giving out. Over the last week that
process of decay became quite evident in her frame.
No one wants to
die. But we all will. It is helpful in times of sadness to
remember that this is a normal part of life. One of the things that makes this so
hard is the fact that we are confronted with the reality of our own mortality. As we grieve at death we are also
reminded of the importance of living while we are alive.
Second, notice that
Paul points us beyond death. He
says when we die we will have a new body in Heaven. Joni Eareckson
spends most of her life in a wheelchair. Her legs are lifeless and her arms are
limited in what they can do. Joni spends a lot of time thinking about the
transformation of the body. She imagines what it will be like,
One
day no more bulging middles or balding tops. No varicose veins or crow's-feet.
No more cellulite or support hose. Forget the thunder thighs and highway hips.
Just a quick leapfrog over the tombstone and it's the body you've always
dreamed of. Fit and trim, smooth and sleek. [Eareckson, HEAVEN p. 34]
The Bible likens our resurrected
body to the transformation that takes place when a seed is planted in the
ground, or when a caterpillar comes out of the cocoon as a butterfly. The
transformation that takes place is something that we can't understand.
Eareckson writes,
trying
to understand what our bodies will be like in heaven is much like expecting an
acorn to understand his destiny of roots, bark, branches, and leaves. Or asking
a caterpillar to appreciate flying. Or a peach pit to fathom being fragrant. Or
a coconut to grasp what it means to sway in the ocean breeze. Our eternal
bodies will be so grand, so glorious, that we can only catch a fleeting glimpse
of the splendor to come. [Eareckson, HEAVEN p. 39]
This is the kind of life that
awaits those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ. I believe Hazel Lund was one of those
people.
But here’s the question:
“Is it true?” Is Heaven
simply something that we have made up so that can cope with the reality of the
end of life?
I believe in Heaven with all my
heart. The Bible tells us that we
can know there is life beyond the grave because the One who has risen from the
dead, Jesus, has told us that it is true.
He has told us that He is going to prepare a place for us so that we may
live with Him when we die.
Think about it. When you look at
an airplane what you see is this big metal tube with wings on it. When someone tells us that such a thing
will safely fly through the air loaded with people. . . we have every reason to
be skeptical. It seems absurd. Why
would anyone get on one of those things?
Why? Because we have seen
those metal birds fly. We know people who have been transported by those tubes.
In much the same way, the talk
of living beyond the grave sounds like wishful thinking. However, Jesus rose from the dead and
has promised that those who put their trust in Him will live even though they
die. We know that He has risen and
we see how He has changed our lives and the lives of many others like us. So, we believe what He says about life
beyond the grave.
So, as we gather today, we are
sad. That is a right and normal
response to loss. However, we need
to remember that we are sad because of our
loss. As far as Hazel is concerned, there is nothing at all to be sad
about. She has traded in her old
worn out shell for a new heavenly body.
She has traded the struggles and heartache of life for the glory of
Heaven. After all these years, she
is reunited with Buster. But even
more significantly, she has met her Lord in person. She knows His love, peace, joy and
renewal personally and fully. Now, she knows the truth with clarity. She rejoices in a way that is richer
than anything we have experienced in this life. She worships with a depth we
can’t begin to imagine. To
wish to have her back is selfish.
So I encourage you to share your
stories. Celebrate the blessing
that Hazel brought to your lives. Rejoice in this gift of God to you. Allow yourself to grieve . . . but do
not grieve as those who have no hope.
Grieve as those who know that this is not the end of the story.
Let’s pray,
Father, we give you thanks for
the life of Hazel Lund. Thank you
for her spirit, her laugh, her kind and loving heart, and her sure faith. Now embrace her with your loving
arms. Renew her heart and her
body. Welcome her into the place
that you have prepared for her in your matchless grace.
Thank you also for Jesus. Thank you for His life, His death, His
resurrection, and His present intercession on our behalf. Thank you for the hope that we have in
your promise of eternal life.
Father, I ask you to comfort and
strengthen this family. They have
been wonderfully close for a long time.
Please help them as they face this change in their lives. Comfort them with the knowledge that
they have been faithful and loving toward Hazel right up to the end of her
life. Grant many warm memories and
grant that the lessons learned might be passed on to others.
And for all of us Lord, teach us
to number our days aright. Help us
to live with an eye on the life that is to come.
We ask all these things in Jesus’
name.