After the Funeral

Al took Gracie back home after the luncheon. She said to Al that she was exhausted and needed rest. Al spent the next four hours getting the paper run completed. The stock was fed into the press, printed, and then cut. The final step was to run the papers through the folding machine. With the paper run complete Al felt at ease.

Finished at the paper he walked through the front door of Chuck’s place and found him sitting at the counter. He walked around Chuck and behind the counter found a cup and poured a cup of coffee. Sitting next to Chuck, the two shared a minute of quiet. Al spoke up, “Gonna be kinda hard around here without him. Sure were a lot of folks at the funeral and the hall. I think Gracie is gonna be alright. It will take time, but I think she’s gonna be alright.”

Chuck sat in silence, staring down into his cup. He seemed to be in thought and asked Al in a very soft voice, “Do you really believe all that stuff about heaven, and seeing God? What about that stuff the preacher said? Is Jesus the only way to go to heaven? Why can’t people just be good loving folks and see God?”  “Wow,” Al said, “That’s a lot of questions. I’m not a preacher or a scholar in the Bible. I can only tell you about me, what happened to me. I know that I was so messed up. It was in believing that Jesus gave his life for me that brought me peace. I can’t speak for anybody else, but it was Jesus Christ that saved my life.”