A little over 3 years ago a young teen girl that I knew disappeared from school one Friday evening in early November. Volunteer search teams were organized and about a week after her disappearance, I joined the search teams. In total, I went out on 21 days, including Thanksgiving, a cold blustery day, when we had a total of 6 people going out. I went out that day with the father of another girl who had disappeared years before and been found murdered about 2 weeks after her disappearance.
During that same period of time the following excerpt was published in the UUWorld....and the coincidental nature of the two events hit me in a way that I can't describe. In early March of the next year, her jawbone was found, miles and miles away from where we had been searching, but in a place that perhaps helped the jury to decide the guilt of the person accused of her disappearance and murder.
She was found the Friday before his preliminary hearing the next week. A hearing at which many of us felt there would not be sufficient evidence to charge him with murder, as she had not been found, so who was to say that she was actually dead, let alone murdered.
In another odd twist of fate, I went to church yesterday, primarily to take pictures of our young adults vocal ensemble, for our adult music program bulletin board. I knew that we had a guest minister, who had been speaking at various activities all weekend, and I had read her bio, but somehow the significance had not registered.
When she was introduced yesterday and began to speak, I realized that she was the same minister who had written the excerpt that I had read in 2007. I was profoundly moved by her sermon, as were many of the singers, and members of both the congregations who heard her at the 10 and 11:30 services.
At the end of the first service, for the benediction, she recited The 23rd Psalm, with the word 'Lord' replaced by the word "love". I had been recording the service but did not have my recorder on at that point, I was thinking that I might ask her for a copy later. As it happened, I was there also at the end of the second service, another 'coincidence' having forgotten my rather pricey music recorder in the loft, and only realizing as much after I made it home.
But for the second service, there was a different benediction. But my prayer had not been forgotten, for as I reread her words from 2007 today, there it was..... "Love is my shepherd, I shall not want, Love makes me lie down in green pastures, Love leads me beside the still waters....."
I was able to speak with her after the service, to buy a copy of her latest book, and to ask about the article in the UU World. At that point, I was unsure if she had written it, or if I had misrememberd the article, or if even there was such an article. In my mind, the person who wrote the article was a grey haired woman of 60 something, which did not fit with my experience of Kate Braestrup yesterday; a vibrant chestnut haired sprite.
So today, I went online to the UU World, to back issues, and trusting my memory pulled up the winter 2007 issues, and there it was, the excerpt from Kate's current book at the time.....which follows.... note the date....11/1/07......Cori disappeared 11/9/07.
One thing I am sure of
'God is not less kind, less committed, or less merciful than a Maine game warden.'
By Kate Braestrup
Winter 2007 11.1.07
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