A Service of Worship
Celebrating the Life of Joan Borton
April 1, 2019
Immanuel United Church, Winnipeg
Rev. Ha Na Park
Celebrating the Spring, Celebrating Joan
Spring is slowly but surely emerging out from under our feet, making itself felt in the air and in our anticipation.
When I leave home last year’s grass is shy but seen in the circles that the melted snow left in my front yard. The rose stems have earned their survival after this very cold last winter and will soon begin to show the signs of hope and their pretty buds and leaves. The Red River and Assiniboine River will flow again and reflect the light of the Sun on their surfaces like shiny wrinkles. As I remember and celebrate the life of Joan, who was a beloved member of our Immanuel congregation and a dear friend to so many in her beautifully and widely quilted squares of friendship, and the one and only sister to Dave and Doreen, I thought I would dedicate today’s reflection to her, in the spirit and celebration of spring.
If we were to pick a season among the four that would be the closest to the character of children, I would say it has to be Spring. Spring helps us to discover again and again the part of us that is still like a child. Spring invites us to rejoice, to start anew, to adopt an unhurried curiosity towards the creation and recreation of the earth and the landscape around us. In the scripture reading Joan’s friends chose and Brenda shared with us today, Jesus says to his friends, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.” This afternoon, I invite you to delight in the anticipation of spring. I imagine that the seeds of joy, laughter and tears Joan shared with you and left in your hearts will become a tree, and a song, for as long as we remember Joan.
As I read the notes I took from Dave and Doreen and Joan’s friends, I was reminded of the Maya Angelou quote: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Everyone told me how much Joan’s presence and her life meant for them, how they remembered the way Joan would sit and look at them. Joan looked right into their eyes with her blue eyes when she spoke to them. Joan always listened first, talked later. Fiercely loyal to her friends, Joan made each of them feel trusted and loved, knowing that Joan would always have their back. In the same spirit, Joan dedicated most of her work career to Children’s Hospital, caring for the children on isolation and Surgical Wards, Intensive Care and Post Anesthetic Care Units, Children’s Clinic and in Cardiology. Joan was a hardworking and compassionate nurse who will be long-remembered for her advocacy for patients and families. At five feet, Joan was small but mighty, morally, ethically, in advocacy, love and care. While working as a surgical nurse clinician in Cardiology, Joan was a voice for families navigating the frightening journey of their child’s heart surgery. This was a life-changing chapter in Joan’s life; she gave of herself to secure the best outcomes for the children. After retiring, Joan used her energy and her experience to spend a huge amount of time volunteering. People of all ages loved Joan in all her volunteer endeavours: CGIT, the breakfast program at Elmwood Elementary, the Pan Am and Canada Games, and at Immanuel United Church, to name just a few. Joan was deeply saddened when illness forced her to stop after 11 years of volunteering for English as a Second Language in the Winnipeg School Division. Joan was a philanthropist, preferring to support smaller charities and those that fed and sheltered the marginalized in Winnipeg. Friends told me Joan was a “Lifelong champion of the underdog and a believer in social justice.” Joan herself practiced humanity and humility, and liked to engage with those who practice the same. Joan is remembered in many loving (detailed) memories by her friends as someone who was always clear about what she liked and what she didn’t - black and white, yes or no - she definitely didn’t care for arrogance in anyone.
My own friendship with Joan started to grow when I connected with our member Karen, who lives in the same building as Joan. Karen’s on the 8th floor, Joan’s on the 5th. As I was fairly new to the ministry of Immanuel last year, Karen helped me to get to know Joan at church after service on Sunday mornings, and also kindly offered to host a tea time with her homemade almond cake. Joan and I began conversing and sharing blessings. I smiled when Joan’s friends told me about Joan’s famous “pregnant pauses”, the silence that often emerged during one-on-one conversations. When I talked to her, when I thought I should finish, I would encounter her eyes, then the pregnant pause, then I would recollect what else I would like to say. It never felt awkward; the moments Joan shared with me made me feel her acceptance, trust and gift of love. One day after worship on a Sunday morning before Christmas, I asked her, “I am not sure how I may be helpful, but would you want me to pray for you?”, Joan said yes, and was willing to hold my hands and let me pray for her. Later she told me she was thinking of that prayer during her chemo. At her bedside at Riverview, when I asked her if I could leave with her a strawberry medicine patch, I explained the indigenous teaching that was involved in it, telling her strawberry is one of the few fruits that have the seeds on the outside; it’s an important bearer of virtues such as openness, honesty, and embracing vulnerability. Joan looked at me and said she would like to write that down so she would remember. Then she brought the medicine patch close to her nose, and smelled the mixed aromas of lavender, sage, cedar, wild tobacco, and rose. May she rise in the resurrection of the aromas of Spring herbs, strawberries and roses in this wide and beautiful garden of God’s land.
Besides her friends, Joan loved her brother Dave, his wife Doreen, her father and her stepmother Evelyn dearly – they were also a big part of Joan’s life and her heart. Dave and Joan stayed in touch through phone calls and visits while Joan was ill. The family told me that Joan left a note in her journal in which she wrote, “I can get through this if I am with Lisa and Irene, Doreen and Dave.” Dave, may the unfathomable journey of deep grief on the death of Joan, your sister, also be a life-affirming journey towards healing and springtime in God’s grace and God’s love for you, we pray.
Joan liked walking. She especially liked to walk in Kildonan Park. Joan enjoyed the lakes and beaches, with Grand Beach being her favourite. The last time I visited Joan at her home, when I asked, “What does this time mean for you?” she answered right away, with no pregnant pause, but black and white, yes or no, saying, “Setting goals. My goal is to gain strength. Then, in the spring, I would like to go to Ottawa, Ontario, with my friend. When I took a trip to Washington, DC I visited the Capitol building, the White House and so on, and learned about their history. I really enjoyed myself. I thought, why not visit my own country’s capital city next time?”
Joan, spring is slow in this land which our indigenous relatives have called “The land where God sits”, yet when it comes, it comes full of signs of hope and resurrection — filling the heart of the believers with the aromas of healing herbs and medicines - lavender, sage, cedar, tobacco, rose… In this Turtle land, the small wild strawberries sprout their dark green leaves close to the ground. I remember in spring, in White Shell, wild blueberries are still hidden until the summer. Children and parents will find joy picking them and tasting them when the warm weather comes.
Joan, may the Cosmic Christ rejoice with you. May God bless the heart of all believers who await the coming of the spring. May the friendship of the Holy Spirit accompany you in your next adventures where Heaven and earth meet, where the sky and sea blend into a horizon of new hope. May we all arise in the hope of resurrection. May God hold Joan in the palm of her hands, on her wings. Amen.
Hymn: VU 808 On Eagle's Wings
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