a promise, even unto death, to his mom

I was late, or so I thought, but it turned out the timing was perfect.

Minister Murray was going through the acknowledgements as I entered and took a seat at Connor's Temple Baptist Church.

Then a woman came up and sang a religious anthem that started out slow, but gathered steam and energy as it went on to a rousing finish.

"At least I caught that part," I thought.

And when Reverend Sills, the pastor, took the microphone, I had expected a closing benediction and the end of the Home Going Celebration of Mr. Willie Smith, Jr., but that isn't what happened.

He began with the verse from Revelations about all being united with God some day.

Then he went to Ecclesiastes 5:5 "It is better not to promise anything than to promise something and not do it."

That led into his memories of going to baseball games with Willie in years past, to watch the Savannah Braves and the Savannah Sand Gnats, and how much Willie had loved that.

Me, too.

Then he spoke of Willie's dedication to church, being ever present for events there "unless there was a Sand Gnats' game," he said, with a twinkle in his voice.

But there was one exception: he was always there on Sunday.

I knew the backstory for that: Willie had made the promise to his mother that he would always be in church on that day.

No matter if it was a sun-shining, blue-sky, day, perfect for those Sunday afternoon games at Grayson Stadium...

he had promised her to forego baseball on the Lord's day...

and his choice had been to always keep that promise, even unto death.

i thank You, God.

Right place, right time, after all.

I was one of the last ones to file out.

I had tried to search out his niece, Jackie, but didn't find her.

One of Willie's neighbors came up to me, recognizing me as "the girl who would pick him up and take him to the games".

He also introduced me to Willie's son, and I told him how proud his dad was of him, being sure to have folks look him up on the MLB site.

He thanked me for helping to watch over his dad and introduced me to his sister.

I meant to ask about his daughter, Tian, but I didn't see her there.

I did ask about his stepmom, Gloria, and he told me she was not doing well and had not been able to make the trip from Ohio.

Now, I'm home and really not planning to go out any time soon.

The sky is crying, and I know how it feels.

I think I'll pull up the video from 2009 of Willie at the Sand Gnats game.

It'll be good to hear his voice.