The funeral home’s obit can be found here.

The News Sun’s obit includes a guest book.

(I’m posting both in case one disappears in a couple of days.)

“A memorial service is scheduled for 2:00 P.M., Sunday, August 12, 2007 at Strang Funeral Chapel & Crematorium, 410 E. Belvidere Rd, Grayslake, IL 60030. Friends of the family may visit from 1:00 P.M. until the time of service.”

The family is requesting that in lieu of flowers, a donation to a cancer charity in Mike’s memory would be most appreciated. My preference would be to steer friends toward a humane cancer research charity.

Here’s a picture that I took of Mike with our Mom on Mothers’ Day, 2007:

Give rest, O Christ, to thy servant with thy saints:
where sorrow and pain are no more;
neither sighing but life everlasting.

More music I found: (Click to hear the tunes. Sing with me.)

Come down, O love divine,
seek thou this soul of mine,
and visit it with thine own ardor glowing;
O Comforter, draw near,
within my heart appear,
and kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing.

O let it freely burn,
till earthly passions turn
to dust and ashes in its heat consuming;
and let thy glorious light
shine ever on my sight,
and clothe me round, the while my path illuming.

Let holy charity
mine outward vesture be,
and lowliness become mine inner clothing;
true lowliness of heart,
which takes the humbler part,
and o’er its own shortcomings weeps with loathing.

And so the yearning strong,
with which the soul will long,
shall far outpass the power of human telling;
for none can guess its grace,
till Love create a place
wherein the Holy Spirit makes a dwelling.

and

“I heard the voice of Jesus say”
(Maybe this is a cheerier tune.)

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General things I wanted to remember about the funeral

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Added 8/18/07:

Although Mike died peacefully, and maybe in the best way possible, there are questions to be raised, such as, why did God heal his dog, but not him, among other things. (Not that I’m complaining that Petunia is still doing extremely well more than a year after her cancer surgery that didn’t get it all. But “how would it look?”) In light of the Peru earthquake, and the hundreds of people who died inside the church (while celebrating the Assumption, and a funeral), the question of “where is ‘God’s justice’” came up on one listserv that I read.

This article, which was written after the Tsunami a couple of years ago, seems helpful to read, when there are no answers to the questions, or when any answer tends to reflect bad theology:

“The Mystery of Suffering”, by the Rev. Matt Gunter

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Added 9/5/2007: I just received a scanned copy of Mike’s death certificate today, and would like to comment on it. I understand that he had been treated for cancer, and that was the obvious health concern for the past year. But I never believed he died of cancer. I believe he died from the toxic effects of the chemo. And I would like to “go on record” with that, and my belief that there is something (maybe unintentionally) dishonest, statistic-wise, to assume that cancer is the cause of death in people who have cancer. The point is, the artificially high cancer death statistic and the fear it causes increases the public’s perception of an urgent need to “find a cure”. But in reality (I believe), if people who died from “the cure” were documented as dying from, say, the poisonous and immune-system-killing effects of chemo — who knows how many that really is — maybe the public would be less inclined to throw money at the research industry (and their animal labs) to develop more toxic treatments. I feel that as his sister, I have a perfect right to have that opinion. I’m not just some random animal rights person who has no personal ties with someone who has gone through a year of roller coaster rides. His treatment was stopped, when his doctor decided it was doing him more harm than good. And I believe it did.

And, if I ever get cancer, I don’t think I’ll choose to go that route.