We snuck away like 6 bandits in the night, a shovel and a hoe in hand. The mission was clear: a burial was to take place.
We walked a good way before agreeing upon the location, a patch in the dirt with minimal rocks that was mostly unaffected by the monsoon rains.
Our tools bit into the earth, leaving a dark hole, a square thing spanning 1 foot in both directions and the same measurement deep.
Satisfied, we drop the tools, allowing them to clang and thud to the ground.
And then one by one we read them.
Eulogies.
I read mine third, from a piece of lined paper that had been ripped along the side where the margin had been.
I was handed a lighter.
There was a spark. I watched as my paper burst into flames and danced its way into the hole in the earth, illuminating it along its path. It burned brightly for a moment then simmered into embers which dimmed one by one until I was staring into a hole of blackness again.
A part of me died and was buried that night. It was a part of myself I had taken very little time to acknowledge before, but a part that God asked me to sever from my person. It was the part of Angelique that was selfish with her words, her heart and with the hearts of others. It was the part of Angelique that played mind games.
The Angelique that lives is alive in Christ. The Lord is teaching her to walk as a woman of integrity, the weight of her words weighing heavily and laden with truth. She will be an honorable woman, one who works hard, who fights for what is right and one who chases the heart of her Father far above the hearts of men.
Here lies the former life of
Angelique Sturm
January 22nd, 1988 – September 17th, 2012
May she rest in peace, never again to be a corpse bride.
"Awake you who sleep.
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light."
Ephesians 5:14
