Antigo Times

Top Menu

  • E-Editions
  • Contact Us

Main Menu

  • News
    • Business
  • Covid 19
  • Opinion
  • Courts
  • Arts & Ent
  • Sports
    • Sports News
    • High School Sports Scores
  • Classifieds
    • View Ads
    • Place Ads
  • Legal Ads
    • Our Legals
    • Statewide
  • Obits
  • Video
  • Best of 2022
  • Class of 2020
  • E-Editions
  • Contact Us

logo

Antigo Times

  • News
    • Business
  • Covid 19
  • Opinion
  • Courts
  • Arts & Ent
  • Sports
    • Sports News
    • High School Sports Scores
  • Classifieds
    • View Ads
    • Place Ads
  • Legal Ads
    • Our Legals
    • Statewide
  • Obits
  • Video
  • Best of 2022
  • Class of 2020
Uncategorized
Home›Uncategorized›PUBLISHER’S LETTER

PUBLISHER’S LETTER

By Antigo Times
April 20, 2020
1045
0

An Intangible Farewell

Dear Reader,

Tess Nowalk, my mother-in-law died last Saturday morning. She was a beautiful woman in all ways imaginable, who lived a life of quiet service to others. It’s hard to comprehend how to say goodbye to a person you’ve loved
for decades and how to grieve with others who loved her the same when social distancing demands that we stay apart. It’s even more difficult to come to terms with the earthly finality of her parting, during a pandemic such as this one, when the last farewell is just beyond reach.

Imagine a visitation and funeral where people are lined up outside waiting inside their cars to drive to the grave site unable to pay their last respects. Imagine that for the brief service only ten people from the immediate family are allowed to be present — each standing at minimum six feet apart from each other and wearing masks.

Imagine going out to the cemetery and waiting until the coffin is buried before the few family members and closest friends can congregate at a distance around the grave site. Prayers can be made and songs can be sung, but the comfort of clasping hands, hugging, or holding one another up in each other’s sorrow must remain absent. So too, is removed the last touch and final gaze upon the dearly departed.

In the end, how do we ever truly say goodbye to a loved one for the last time, knowing that it’s beyond forever and through eternity? Is there really a perfect or right way? Do we say the words that we’ve always said but differently this time, knowing that we’ll never say them again in person? Do we look into their eyes one last time in a special way, knowing that we’ll never be able to look into them again? In the end, no matter the circumstances, parting is never easy and there is never a good way to go through it — especially if the death is sudden and unexpected.

Tess was 91 and died of natural causes, having enjoyed an engaging and fulfilled life. In a sense, her goodbye, if you can call it that, could be construed as a long one, consisting of laughter and joy and many loving events sprinkled throughout the rich decades of a lifetime. She gently loved all in her presence, demonstrated through her continuous halo of activities.

There is a deep sadness for us who remain behind, but joyous ecstasy for her at a new place on the continuum, well earned for that last extension of perpetuity. In the end, no kind of farewell will ever be able to capture the fullness of life that will live on in her memory. The tangibility of her being has transformed into an intangibility of a spiritual presence that will always be with us as we forge the remainder of our paths through physical life.


PATRICK WOOD
PUBLISHER

Previous Article

During Essential Travel, Watch Out for Work ...

Next Article

Bird Shootings On The Rise

Related articles More from author

  • Uncategorized

    Milan August Bernarde, 90

    February 10, 2016
    By Antigo Times
  • UncategorizedVideo

    BREAKING NEWS: Antigo Fire Department responds to downtown store

    August 31, 2016
    By Antigo Times
  • Uncategorized

    Julianna Bauknecht recognized nationally for animal welfare non-profit program

    February 9, 2017
    By Antigo Times
  • SportsUncategorized

    Robins soccer loses to Mosinee, looks forward to Amherst tonight

    September 26, 2016
    By Antigo Times
  • Letter from PublisherUncategorized

    PUBLISHER’S LETTER

    November 16, 2021
    By Antigo Times
  • Uncategorized

    Wisconsin Air Quality Report Shows Improvement

    October 5, 2021
    By Antigo Times

Timeline

  • May 17, 2022

    T.J.Maxx to Open in Antigo

  • May 17, 2022

    Antigo Tennis Tournament in Wausau

  • May 16, 2022

    Very High Fire Danger Across Most Of Wisconsin

  • May 16, 2022

    Rise in COVID-19 Cases Calls for Increased Precautions to Protect Health Statewide

  • May 16, 2022

    Near Critical Fire Danger Across Northwest Wisconsin

Copyright © 2020 Multi Media Channels LLC.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted without the prior written consent of Multi Media Channels LLC.
×