Well, hello, my friends, and welcome to the Live Inspired podcast Monday morning moments with John O'Leary.

Last weekend, I attended the funeral of a dear family friend.

Her life was an example of living joyfully, loving family passionately, and serving others unfailingly.

As emotional as the service and the music and the eulogy were, it was a tender moment

between two of her grandchildren that just brought me to tears.

Let me tell you about it.

As the service began and as the music filled the church, one of the granddaughters,

about 13 or so, became overwhelmed with sadness. She put her hands over her face, she

bought her head, and this little girl just began weeping. To her side, another grandchild, this one, a little boy, about eight years of age or so, looked up.

He saw his cousin crying. The little boy pulled his left hand from his sport jacket pocket, put it around his cousin, and then he pulled her close to him.

My friends, no words were exchanged.

None had to be.

A simple sign of loving solidarity liberated the young girl to know it was okay to cry.

She was not alone, and that there was another person

who would shoulder some of that sorrow with her. Observing this from a few rows back, tears ran down

my cheeks. It wasn't just the raw emotion within that moment, but also the reminder of the numerous similar moments

in my own life. Let me share just a couple with you today. After the death of a dear friend in

college, I held in all that sadness, refusing to believe that my buddy Mark, he was a bastion of

joyful life, could possibly be dead.

But as the final song began playing at the funeral and as they rolled my friend's casket out of the church,

I began weeping uncontrollably.

The dear friend of mine from grade school, who remained my buddy in high school and took time away from work in college to join me at this funeral.

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