Dear Friends,
On Saturday, August 11, at 5 pm close to 350 people assembled at the West Grove Meeting House to remember David MacLeod who had died in a car accident on August 3 at the age of 54. Every bench, including the facing benches, was filled, people stood along the walls inside the Meeting House, and stood outside as well, looking in the windows and door. Friend David was a member of Newark Monthly Meeting and West Grove MM Meeting kindly let us conduct the Memorial Service for Worship in their Meeting House, because the London Britain Meeting House which David loved and where we worship in the summer would have been far too small to accommodate all of his friends and family members. West Grove MM was beautifully decorated with arrangements of meadow and garden flowers that friends had collected from many different homes. Placed against the window in the front were branches of bamboo and David’s walking stick.
Sally Milbury-Steen, Co-Clerk, opened the Memorial Service and noted that everyone was there because David had in some special and unique way touched their lives. The attendees were diverse in age and from many different walks of life; some were his contemporaries; some were friends of his mother from Jenner’s Pond and Crosslands; some were children. There was a strong sense of the Light and of David’s spirit in the many messages that gave a very complete portrait of the many remarkable aspects of his life. Many people spoke of his radiant smile, his ability to listen, his delight in philosophical conversations, his amazing capacity to live in the present moment, the depth of his friendship, and his unfailing willingness to help other people. Others mentioned his struggle with Lyme Disease and how he had reached out to them when they had contracted it. Family members shared some of the poetry that he had written and other remembrances, while a nephew talked about catching frogs with Uncle Dadie, and a niece about a cradle that he had sculpted for her from a log. A great many people spoke about David’s tree work — his innate and unrivaled ability to climb and care for trees. To David everything in nature was sentient and he understood their language. Every living creature was precious and had a gift to give us, if we just took the time to move beyond our self-centeredness.
The love that David gave and the love that he received from others embraced us all at the service. By the end, many who had come in with a deep sense of mourning and sorrow were uplifted and comforted by the many messages that brought us to a peaceful place of thanksgiving for having known him and for having learned from him the true wonder of life. At the reception afterwards, a number of people who had never attended a Quaker Memorial Service before, came up and told me how meaningful
and helpful it had been to them. Some of them are looking forward to attending Quaker worship and weddings in the future. David’s mother and other family members found the service “amazing” and said that it brought them great solace. Seeing the huge crowd that came, and knowing that probably two to three times that many people would have liked to have been there, but were unable to, reinforced once more for me the great power that we each have as an individual to touch others through our life and love. Friend David truly made a difference in our lives and made the world better for us, frogs, trees, flowers and all that grows. We know he rests in peace.
Sally Milbury-Steen
Co-Clerk, Newark MM
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