For Sande Dawn Jordan

My friend Wes stands beside himself in grief and anguish over the death of his 17-year-old granddaughter last Wednesday. She died of a particularly virulent form of cancer and Wes, who has worked in hospital intensive care units, described her dying as the most gruesome he’s ever seen.

In the midst of his anguish, Wes restructured the dedication page of the book he has been working on, Adventist: The Autobiography of Joseph Pyram King, so that the page includes a line of tribute to Sande Dawn Jordan.

King, a minister and a physician, lived a hundred years from 1848 to 1948 and was a founder father of the Christian Adventist movement. He stood trial for heresy over his views of the afterlife in 1880 and wrote a defense of his stance which is reprinted in Wes’ book.

Sande lived only 17 years and was just at the threshold of life. Today, she knows as much about the joys of the afterlife as the good doctor.

Yesterday, Wes and I made the last minute changes from the printer’s proofs and published the book on-line at www.bluefishbooks.info .

Wes has collected all this material, text, photographs and anecdotes, mainly as a labor of love toward his extended family to preserve elements of family history which would otherwise be lost.

Ironic that tributes to the 100-year-old great-great-grandfather and the 17-year-old granddaughter lie together in the same little volume.

However, for those of us who have not crossed the finish line yet, the race is still to be run; the duties of this day remain.

As some poet said, “Life must go on — I forget just why”.