Greeting the Saints on All Hallows Eve

Six days ago I was standing in a golden carpet of fallen leaves and looking at the resting places of my great-great-great-great-great Grandfather Church Tabor and his wife's mother, Jane Steel. A few hours after that I also visited a few miles away the final resting place of my Grandmother Elizabeth (Betsy) Steel Tabor. The first two rest in a large cemetery in South Hero, Vermont next to two of his grandchildren, Church Tabor Healy and Sally Drusilla Healy, children of his son-in-law and daughter Nathaniel and Jane Tabor Healy. Church Tabor had reportedly died in a house fire in January of 1835. The story is that he got out of the burning building, but then tried to save some things and died in the attempt. Not surprisingly, the ephitaph on his marker reads, "Be ye also ready for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." It is obvious why those particular words were selected. Church's mother-in-law rests next to him. She passed away on September 15, 1821. The words at the bottom of her stone are less legible, but appear to read, "Depart my friend wipe off your tears. Here I must lie til Christ appears."

We then drove to the top of North Hero Island and back over to the mainland to W Swanton on Hog Island. We had read in a history of South Hero that there was a private Tabor Cemetery there and that was where Elizabeth was buried. We found her there in the quiet place, buried next to her son, James Madison Tabor and his wife Mary. She had lived until July 10, 1845. On her stone the comforting words, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord."

I am so blessed to have had so many men and women in my ancestry who have loved the Lord and who have lived their lives with faith in God and who have faced death with the same faith that they lived. When standing before the stone of Jane Steel, I thought of those who had followed who had faithfully shared their love of Jesus with the next generation.

On this All Hallow's Eve, I want to thank Jane Steel, Church and Betsy Tabor, Nathaniel and Jane Tabor Healy, Robert and Rosina Healy Richardson, David and Rosina Jane Richardson Stevens, Will and Ella Jane Stevens Atwater Sherwood, Herman and Susan Sherwood Weber, and my dear parents Bob and Bernadine Weber (she's still here) and all the other aunts, uncles and cousins of long ago for their faithfulness is showing to each succeeding generation the amazing love of God.

I look forward to seeing them all when the last trumpet sounds.