Saying goodbye to Congressman John Lewis
You never really know when you鈥檙e seeing someone for the very last time. Remember to make every moment count, they say. Remember to tell them you love them, they say. But when you meet someone who is so loving and so kind, you don鈥檛 have to remember a thing.
I remember the first time I met聽. It was at the Southern Poverty Law Center鈥檚聽聽in Montgomery, Alabama. He was leading a Faith and Politics Civil Rights Pilgrimage for congressional leaders, as he did almost every year as part of his commemoration of the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, in which he and others were聽聽on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
That day in Montgomery, as the delegation made its way from the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church and neared us, I saw him. Flanked by children carrying a wreath to be laid on the Memorial, the congressman looked somber and serious.
When I approached to lead the group to their places around the Memorial, he smiled and said, 鈥淭hank you.鈥� I watched and listened in awe as he talked about seminal events in his life that are etched on the Memorial, which honors 40 martyrs of the civil rights movement. Before he departed that day, I hugged him and said, 鈥淭hank you.鈥�
As part of his 鈥淐elebration of Life,鈥� the congressman is taking a final tour through his native Alabama this weekend. I have to be there. One last time at Brown Chapel. One last time across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. One last time together in Montgomery.
We鈥檝e placed a wreath in his memory at the Memorial. Later today, I鈥檒l position a poster with a picture of him at the spot where he once stood. We鈥檒l gather to remember what he tried to聽convey to us聽all these years: 鈥淒o not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime.鈥�
Each time Congressman Lewis visited the Memorial, we repeated our greetings and goodbyes. Each time more special than the last. I don鈥檛 know when it happened, but I came to add 鈥淚 love you.鈥� And you know what? He said, 鈥淚 love you, too.鈥�
Today, I鈥檒l say those words one last time.
