Welcome to Thanks for being here. Very short pod that comes out every Sunday morning as

Sundays are such a good time to let go of the day to day and touch base with what matters,

what will matter and what will have mattered. The answer to that question for me is often

found in ceremonies I could watch strangers get married once a week and I'm even more affected

by funerals, sitting in a service, taking in the story of one life. Just another ordinary

person who they loved and who loved them. In a way, eulogies are about the most succinct

source of clarity and direction I can think of. So I ask listeners who have lost someone dear

to share their words and every week I'll read one eulogy here so that we don't forget

there is a point to the pain we have much to offer. We affect each other deeply and that ordinary

lives are really kind of exquisite when you look at them closely. This is Thanks for being here.

Hi guys, welcome back to Thanks for being here. This week a woman named Sherry Hoffman

shared the eulogy that she wrote for a friend and coworker who died in September 2001,

which was of course already a bad month. This was written for her memorial service and Sherry says,

I love that you were doing this project thanks for being here because I find myself transformed

after every single memorial service. I urge my kids to go to services throughout their lives

because there are many lessons and messages to unearth at each one, to see the entire prism

of a human you thought you knew. So Sherry, we're with you on that and that's why we're doing

thanks for being here. So here are Sherry's thoughts on Mark which is a nickname for Margaret.

I'm Sherry. Mark and I have been great friends for 11 years. We work together for about 10 of those

as safety consultants. We became entertainment divas at our very conservative company and we somehow

started doing retirement roasts or going away roasts which became multimedia events after a while

with dancing, singing and acting. We were also able to get some people and management to wear

...