Homily for Miriam

Miriam Creighton, (nee Browne) died in Ireland on Monday. She was just 46 and leaves a husband and two young children. Her brother Canon Pat Browne gave this homily at her funeral at Holy Trinity Church in Rataouth yesterday.

Steve Jobs the Chairman of Apple who died over two weeks ago battled with cancer as Miriam did and for a while he came through. Afterwards in one interview he talked about his experience and said: No one wants to die - even those who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And Miriam was no different! Talking about her sickness she often said: "I can't afford to die - there is too much to live for! She was referring particularly to Lucy and Jacob her two children.

But die we must - and the time is not of our choosing. Miriam knew this was so but she didn't sit around thinking about it and feeling sorry for herself. I remember when she was younger one of the songs she did at her gigs with the band was; One Day at a time Sweet Jesus. As soon as she was diagnosed Miriam decided she must "get her head in the right place" as she put it. And the way to do this was to take one day at a time and put as much into and get as much out of it as would be humanly possible with God's Grace. To live each day as if it was her last. She set herself goals - everything from making decisions for the children's futures to decorating the house. Only a month ago she and I were out the back painting the patio table and chairs. As Providence would have it, she was able to fulfil these goals or at least the short term ones. The rest she put in motion and trusts us to continue what she planned.

Like Steve Jobs she had cancer before and came through it then five years ago. But on her 45th Birthday last year she had what she thought would be just a routine appointment with the doctor. But the cancer was back! Wanting to know everything they knew she asked how long and they told her 12 to 18 months. It is not the sort of Birthday present any of us would want to get. A blow to some one who loved life and lived it so fully. I remember taking some of my friends in London to hear her in the band. They couldn't believe it. I was so proud of her as she did her Tina Turner numbers and gave it all she had. Some people live to be a 100 but at the end hey look back on an unlived life. Full of regrets and lots of…I should have….Miriam never half lived. She explored the world and all it had to offer. She lived in Australia and in London before she settled back in this country. But after she married Pete nothing for her could compare with the joy of having Lucy and then Jacob. She had found what was most precious in this world and they became her life.

Lucy, I have a story to tell you. It is about the Mother eagle. The mother eagle builds her nest high up at the top of the mountain - too high for any other birds or wild animals to get to. She hatches her eggs and her chick. She looks after the it. She feeds it and she protects it. But a moment comes when she knows it must leave the nest. It is not going to leave of its own accord. So she gives the little one a push out of the nest. Because it is so high up and the little one doesn't know it has wings or what they are for, it just flops like a stone and is in danger of being killed from the fall. But Mother Eagle spreads her huge wings, flies down under the little one and catches it on the outstretched wings before it hits the ground. She then carries the little one back to the nest and does the same again and again till the little one eventually realises it too has wings, spreads them and learns to fly for itself. Life is like this. It starts when we are babies in the womb. The most comfortable place on earth! Warm and secure - a place of life. But a day comes when Mother and Mother Nature combine and know it is time. And the baby is pushed from this warm, loving safe place into a cold, foreign and bewildering world. If it overstayed its destined time in the womb, the place of life would become a place of death. It must move into the unknown to find life. It is the same with the little child starting big school - all those tears at the gate but Mammy has to be cruel to be kind and make him go in, on his own. It is a strange law of nature. It seems cruel at the time but to stay where we want to would ensure we never grow or become the people we are meant to become. That process continues throughout our lives till the final push which is from this world to the next. We do not want to leave what is familiar and so much that we love. But we must. We cannot stay where we are. This moving on will bring separation and sadness. We are afraid and are scared that we will perish. And we are scared for those who go on ahead of us. But at those times in life when we feel most alone and are scared of what lies ahead Mother Eagle is always there to catch us at every step of life's journey. That Mother Eagle is God - who is always there for us when life is pushing us out of our safe place. At the beginning of this Mass we sang "When you walk through the waters I'll be with you, you will never sink beneath the waves."

Miriam believed this. She did not understand why she had to go so young - to leave people who needed her. Nor do we. It causes us great pain to lose her. She had many questions but she had great faith in the ONE who gives us life in the first place.

May she now soar on Eagles Wings to the heights of heaven where the fulness of life and love will be God's Gift to her.

Miriam we love you. May you Rest in Peace.