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Harvey would have loved it: the crowd, the music, the holy words and water. He would have loved being the first to have his ashes grace St. Joan’s new Memorial Garden. Mostly he would love being forever close to the church, the community that was his vision from the beginning.None of us, even HE, (as Father Harvey Egan signed everything he wrote) could have dreamed back in the old days that there would be a place just across from what was then his home where he and other St. Joan lovers could rest in peace into eternity.
On Sunday, November 5th after the 11:00 o’clock Mass, a crowd gathered to witness Harvey’s ashes being reverently placed in the earth, their final destination. A green carpet filled with soil lay next to a hole prepared beforehand for the ceremony. Three framed pictures of Harvey were propped next to the soil. Long stemmed yellow and maroon roses were distributed among the crowd.
Father Jim DeBruycker, in full clerical garb, prayed the ancient prayer for the dead: “Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.” And we answered, “May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.”
As Father DeBruycker finished intoning the rest of the prayer, “May the angels lead you into paradise. . . .,” Dan Chouinard and his accordion began their magic. “Shall We Dance?” filled the air and crept into our feet. This was one of Harvey’s favorite tunes, and it brought smiles to some faces that had begun to stream with tears.
It was time then for a male relative to lower the jar with Harvey’s ashes into the ground. After that people, witnesses to the event, took turns throwing a handful of soil into the open hole in way of saying a final good-bye through a simple gesture to a not-so-simple man whom they loved. Those with roses lay them alongside the grave.
The ceremony ended with all present holding hands and praying the Our Father. Two young men covered Harvey with a blanket of soil and tamped it down hard.
The ritual was over, but there was one final thing that needed doing; Marlys Weber, who was instrumental in creating the Memorial Garden, began to read a poem that Harvey had written especially for this occasion. It starts with the admonition, “Weep a little when I die,” but quickly adds, “But do not weep too much. Be glad that I am now in a new and better life.” Here is the last stanza of that poem :
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