Friday, October 6, 2017
I first met Ethel on November 28, 2004. I know this because our meeting left such an impact on me that I wrote about it in the live journal I kept then. Upon hearing of her passing, I decided to look up that particular entry. At the time, I was a high school student singing in the choir at St. Mary's and she came up to me after church and said, "You have a beautiful voice, dear. God loves you and so do I." I can't express how much it meant to hear such words from someone who was, at that point, a stranger to me. We grew to know each other more over the years, and when I moved to Victoria for university, I tried to keep in touch when I could. Every time we talked, she would say the same words that started it all: "God loves you and so do I." Sadly, we hadn't talked in a while, which is why it's taken me so long to make it to this page to leave my condolences and say how special Ethel was to me. In some extremely unfortunate (but also beautiful) timing, I had to sing the Psalm at church the day after I found out, and while it was one of the hardest things for me to do without breaking down, I knew I had to make it through, for Ethel. So, rest in peace, sweet Ethel. God loves you, and so do I.
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Kayla Hart
