Fulfilling one last request

Jeff Walker
Published: March 25, 2008

"When did Jeff get old-"

   Gee, thanks for the humble pie, Joanna.
This keen observer of my advanced years is a bit younger than I am. I chalked up such a comment to the fact that I had not seen her for more than a year.

When I lived in Roanoke, I watched Joanna and her sister Leigh grow up. They were like little sisters to me, and to my wife. Later, as our sons went from infants to toddlers and beyond, the girls became like sisters to them.

Their mother, Sharon, was also like a second mom to us. Their father, Bill, was like a second father to us both. We also have the honor of Bill and Sharon as the godparents to our sons.

Bill Capps made a special request of me a number of years ago. Would I do a special reading for him, when the time came- Of course, I answered, thinking the day would be many years in the future. Recently, Leigh and Sharon reminded me and I had not forgotten.

I felt honored to fulfill his personal wish, while feeling a twinge of concern. In spite of the countless times over the last 15 years I have served as a lay reader, this time I knew I might have a rough time getting through the liturgy.

The trouble was Bill would never be able to hear me follow through on the request. Nor would he hear the choir he had directed for many years. He would not be able to take communion or see the many family and friends who had gathered in the church.

This time, the choirmaster would not occupy his usual seat between the altar rail and the organ, right next to his wife. He held a different place of honor during this service, the day after Easter.

Sharon did not sit at the organ and accompany the choir. This time she sat in the front of the church in a regular pew, surrounded by her daughters and hundreds of others who had come to St. James.

William O. Capps Jr. died early Thursday morning, March 20. The liturgy of Christian burial took place Monday, March 24, just 24 hours after the Easter service. The Episcopal burial service is an Easter liturgy, and uses the celebration of Christ's resurrection as the basis for the service.

I think Bill would have liked the fact that we all shared two Easter services in one weekend.

As for me, and my small portion of the service, I got up at the appointed time in the liturgy and lead prayers for the departed and for his grieving family.

A few minutes before I got up to read, I took off my glasses so I could cheat a little. I was not attempting to stave off any more comments that I looked older. Without glasses, I could not see any familiar faces as I looked out at the assembly. I could read the prayers for Bill and grant one of his simple wishes for his final service.

The last service he would direct would go off without a hitch and he would not be there physically to oversee it. I know in my heart that he was present, and I feel that he would have been pleased at how it went.

He would have taken comfort in the fulfillment of one of his last requests about the event itself: "I hope that the funeral service will be celebrated to the glory of God. I ask that the emphasis be more thanksgiving for my life than sorrow for my death."

Well, Bill, we did celebrate and we gave thanks for your life because it touched the lives of so many of us.

You will have to allow us a little time to deal with the sorrow part.

William "Bill" Capps Jr. - husband, father, godparent, teacher, veteran, musician, actor, one of the "Saints of James."

Jeff Walker is an independent columnist who lives in Culpeper. He appears every other Wednesday in the
Star-Exponent. E-mail