Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Service of Life Celebration - July 19, 2004
Sharing of Remembrances:
Memorial Service for Sam Adams and Jenny Goodhue
Carol J. Phipps (cj) said:
Sam became known among peers as a kind person, immensely capable and creative with music. He was a unique individual from the start, and Jenny, who stood a foot taller than peers, was the love of Sam’s life. I’ve always felt a kind of affinity with Sam. As many of you know, he was born prematurely and struggled to survive. He had an extra little flap of skin on his heart when he was born; with every heartbeat that flap would flap. Doctors call the phenomenon a "musical heart." Truly, Sam walked to his own rhythm.
When I got the news of Sam and Jenny’s death, I immediately held my head in my hands and yelled, "Oh God! Not Sam and Jenny! It can’t be true!" I cried out to God. My sister, who recently lost her only child, came running into the room asking, "What happened?" I told her about the auto accident and the tragic deaths of Sam and Jenny. She said, "Well, don’t expect me to understand it. I don’t understand it." We went into the living room. I cried more as I
shared memories of Sam when he was a mischevous pre-teen. One such memory was when I was a chaperone for a youth retreat he attended; may have been Sam’s first as a Jr. Higher. We all stood in a circle. Each of us was supposed to speak an affirmation regarding someone else in the circle. Sam had a reputation for his pranks, for being wildly unique as a Jr. High boy. Everyone in the circle had been spoken for but Sam. I don’t recall what I said, but as I shared "something I love about Sam . . ," he squeezed my hand.
While sharing with my sister memories of Sam, and recollections of Jenny and Sam’s faithful service in missions, and worship at Crescent Hill, around Kentucky, and even to Kenya, I went to the bedroom. Suddenly I realized what had just happened to me in the other room. As I had talked about Sam, I sensed him and Jenny right above my head. This is difficult to describe.
Time seemed qualitatively different. It was like an "out of body" experience as I saw Sam and Jenny holding hands, and dancing above my head. Jenny glided, more than danced! When Darrell asked me last night to share this experience today, I wondered how I could explain what I experienced. Then I saw this photo on the Memorial Service program. That is how they
looked; only they were holding hands and dancing. Their faces exuded great joy. Sam looked me in the face and said, "I’m ok! I’m alright!" Sounding from all sides, as though in the very air, were affirmations; praises for faith and lives lived well filled the air, and resounded all around our heads. The words spoken were so real they almost seemed visible.
Then during my drive to Louisville from Maryland to be here today, I thought and cried more, recalling the lives of Sam and Jenny, just 18 and 19 years old; both so very active in the church and on mission. Suddenly, I thought, "the boy with the musical heart gets to live forever with his first love. . . . there is some justice!" Thank you!
There is this eternal life together for Sam and Jenny. For us? Look at us crowded here. Grief, like a wrecking ball, a charging bull has hit its mark and left us like a heap of rubble on a sanctuary floor. May "Hope Eternal" take our hands, and lead us onward to the day we join Jenny and Sam in the presence of Christ Jesus.
-- C.J. Phipps
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CRESCENT HILL BAPTIST CHURCH
2800 Frankfort Avenue
Louisville, Kentucky 40206
(502) 896-4425
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