Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
STAFF WRITER
On Monday, the First United Methodist Church of Portales hosted its fourth and final “End of Life Care and Preparation” seminar.
The seminars focused on the spiritual, emotional and financial preparation people go through when dealing with the process of a loved one dying.
Death is a tough subject to deal with for people of any age, according to Pastor Keith Wilks, who wanted to have these seminars to help people cope either with the death of a loved one or with the preparation for their own death.
“I realized I had thousands of sermons about the afterlife,” Wilks said. “But not one about the dying process and your value during the process. People need to know that it’s okay to be afraid of death. It doesn’t mean that you’re betraying your faith if you’re scared of dying.”
Scott Reeves, the president and active funeral director of the Wheeler Mortuary, was the guest speaker for the final session and answered questions about the legal rights and the choices of burials versus cremations as well as the options of buying a family plot or a prepaid funeral years in advance.
Reeves said one of the biggest issues regarding funeral services is getting all members of the family to agree on what to do with the remains.
“Legally you can sign off on your own cremation,” Reeves said. “But realistically you lose your say once you die. You can be sued if not all parties agree. If that happens, the safe play is to bury, because you can always un-bury someone, but you can’t un-cremate them.”
Wilks spoke about the five stages of grief and tied them to Mark 14:32-34 in which denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance were all referenced.
“The writer is giving us a picture of what humanity goes through in the dying process,” Wilks said. “This passage gives us a chance to talk about it without fear that we are betraying our faith. It’s okay to be in this process.”
Cameron Ridenour of Portales was one of the people who came to all four seminars and was pleased with everything he learned.
“I was just trying to find out more information,” Ridenour said. “My parents are getting up in their years, and I wanted to know what I need to do and where I need to go. All of the seminars were really informative. They sure brought out a lot of what I didn’t know. Now I know what I need to do with the preparations.”
Ridenour wasn’t unique in returning to all four seminars as noted by Wilks. With the strong turnout, Wilks believes the church will have another round of informative seminars.
“Most people were here for all four sessions,” Wilks said. “We had a strong number of returning people. Depending on our feedback, that will give us a picture of where we go from here.”
Wilks was pleased with the turnout, noting the third seminar, which focused on hospital language, was the most heavily attended.
“I think the people who were here were very open,” Wilks said. “The presenters had great information, and I really think overall we left this seminar a lot more educated on end of life care.”
