Words of Remembrance

(Written by John Lackie and offered at the beginning of Mary's funeral -- March 2, 2010)

Thank you all for coming today. My name is John Lackie, I am the youngest child of Mary Lackie, whose life and memory we are gathered here today to honor.
You each have a copy of the worship aid, which includes a biography of my mother’s life, so I won’t spend the few moments I have in reiterating for you the facts and figures of her earthly walk. You can read that later on your own. What I hope to be able to do is to give you some insight into the person she truly was, and to covey to you the essence of what made her so special.
The way I see it, Mom’s life was like a light that shines through a prism and casts a varied, but equally luminous ray in every direction. I can only tell you about the light I received from her, but even though the light she cast on my life may have been different than what you received from her, the source was the same – a great heart.
Mom was a woman small in stature, but mighty in Spirit. I’ve been thinking about how she had the same Spirit as Deborah of Old Testament times. Deborah was a prophetess and a judge – a woman who rose up when all the Israelite nation around her was falling apart, and she held firm to her faith, and took courage, ultimately leading her people to victory over their enemies. The Book of Judges quotes Deborah as saying, if I can paraphrase, “things were going very badly -- until I Deborah arose, I arose a mother in Israel.”
Like Deborah, Mary Lackie refused to be driven by the tide of popular sentiment, and instead she held fast to her standards and “Arose, a Mother in Israel.” In a crazy, mixed-up world, Mom was one who knew something, she had her bearings, and she stuck to them. She raised us to appreciate fine things, food, literature, the arts, good conversation, and hospitality, and important values like honesty, character, and family.
She refused to be dragged down, but held firm to her convictions, with good cheer, humility, and dogged determination. Mom was a great
For her, there was simply a right way that things ought to be done. Whether it was treating people fairly, or comforting those who needed comfort, or simply writing a proper thank-you note, in Mary Lackie’s world, there was simply a way things ought to be done.
Like Deborah of old, she arose a Mother in Israel – providing maternal care to not only her immediate family, but extending her love and concern to a long list of friends, cousins, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, friars, acquaintances, and strangers that paraded through her life over the years. I never knew how much she meant to some of my own childhood friends until one wrote me recently and told me how she had provided counsel and comfort to them in difficult times.
Mom was well-read, of course, and she taught us the value of good literature. While I was never able to develop in myself the taste she had for the likes of T.S. Elliot and Flannery O’Connor, she did encourage my love for J.R.R. Tolkein’s books. I’d like to share a quote from Tolkein’s “The Fellowship of the Ring” that I believe describes the kind of strength of character she demonstrated in her life. In this passage, the wise Elrond, speaking to Frodo the hobbit, says:
“The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”

Mom may have been small in stature, but her heart and her devotion were great. Her faith was like an anchor that held her secure in the storms of life, and she communicated that faith to us, her children.
Let no one diminish the work she did, for though her hands were small, hers were the deeds that moved the wheels of the world. To put it simply, as someone wrote to me this week – this world could use a few more Mary Lackies.
In this world, the eyes of the great may not have been upon her to witness and applaud the mighty deeds those small hands accomplished in her life; but I know that from Heaven, God was keeping watch and was preparing a reward for her that no earthly power could ever hope to match. I’m confident that even now she is being welcomed into that place of peace with the greatest words anyone could hope to hear, “Well done, Mary.”