(written for my mother's memorial service, November, 2006)
Many of our lives began with a test. In fact, we probably all passed 2 tests before being 10 minutes old. The next few decades involved a medley of kindergarten tests, eye exams, biology midterms, drivers' tests, SAT's and entrance exams. Marjorie Rose Soneson passed her share of these and other fabricated instruments used to measure worthiness to proceed, with flying colors.
But recently a kindly gentleman with a stethoscope and spectacles leaned over her withered body and gave her a test she did not pass.
"Mrs. Soneson, who is the President?" he asked.
After a long pause she said, "Ford."
This is a woman who felt as much delight in watching political conventions as most people find in a Caribbean cruise. She thought it was an intense honor to have been born on the 4th anniversary of women getting the vote.
"What day is today?" he went on.
"October?" she answered tentatively.
"Marjorie, what is 20 minus 3?" the doctor asked.
She looked worried. The question was clearly of great importance, and she struggled with the effort to please him. We waited a painfully long time, but she couldn't form the words. I felt the heaviness of my mother's sense of failure.
The funny thing is those questions are precisely the territory that her grandson has covered. Benjamin knows every president including middle names, which ones had beards, who wasn't married and who was in office when the Titanic sank. As for what day it is, Benjamin recently told me the date of every Wednesday in September, October and November (he likes Wednesdays). Numbers, too, are safe in his care. Many mornings the first words out of his mouth are, "Four 314's are
twelve hundred and fifty-six," or, "Nine cubed is 729."
Those earth-shattering facts may have slipped from my mothers' memory, but that's all right. Benjamin caught them and is holding tight. Besides, their absence from Marjorie's mind leaves room for even more exciting things.
There's a story from The Doctrine of Faith that describes a test Midge is taking even as we sit thinking of her. It describes how an angel welcomed a newcomer to the spiritual world.
With the one who was in faith not separated from charity the angel spoke as follows:
"Friend, who are you?"
"I am a reformed Christian."
"What is your doctrine and the religion you have from it?"
"Faith and charity."
"These are two things?"
"They cannot be separated."
"What is faith?"
"To believe what the Word teaches."
"What is charity?"
"To do what the Word teaches."
"Have you only believed these things, or have you also done them?"
"I have also done them."
The angel of heaven then looked at the person and said,
"My friend, come with me and dwell with us."
I think she passed.
