Less than week from today – Thursday, April 15, 2010 marks the one year anniversary of James Lavell Dobson’s death. I think mostly everyone that knew him would agree that his life was taken all too soon. However, he was thankful for the time he had on this beautiful earth and that helps me to be a little more at ease.
I met Lavell for the first time my freshman year of high school. He had the brightest smile and a booming laugh that you could hear echoing through the halls of Monroe City High School. There are so many things that run through my head when I look back at the time spent there with Lavell. Freshman basketball road trips, guitar lab, Giltner’s English classes, Bio with Mrs. Fuller, Varsity basketball road trips and so many more.
After graduating high school, we kind of lost touch. It was when I heard that he was sick that I got back into contact with him. It made me realize how fragile life is and how important to let a person know that they have made the world a better place. Lavell lost his battle with cancer just a couple of short months after his 21st birthday. He was the first person in my class to lose his life, and I think we all realized how lucky we were to have that time with him.
Lavell, I know you are reading this – and I just want you to know that you are truly missed by all of those who knew you. You are remembered every day and I am so thankful our paths crossed on this earth!
Death is nothing at all,
I have only slipped into the next room
I am I and you are you
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name,
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used
Put no difference in your tone,
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was,
Let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It it the same as it ever was, there is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near,
Just around the corner.
All is well.
By Henry Scott Holland
Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral
