Choose Joy for Harper

Harper and Neil

January 30, 2015 by Hemant Mehta
This is a guest post by Amanda Metskas. She is the Executive Director of Camp Quest.

Death is hard.

A few weeks ago, I accompanied my friend Neil Wehneman, the Secular Student Alliance’s Development Director, to the memorial service for his niece Harper.

Harper was nine years old. She was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer a year and a half ago. She fought hard and found reserves of bravery and joy that inspired the people in her life. I wish I had gotten to meet this amazing young woman, and I wish she had gotten to grow up.

Although I didn’t know Harper personally, being there for Neil was important to me. To Neil’s knowledge, he is the only member of his family who publicly self-identifies as secular. He expected that prayers, angels, Jesus, and Heaven would be a part of conversations and remembrances, and he didn’t want to take those things away from anyone else. At the same time, Neil wanted to know that he would have at least one person with whom he could fully process his thoughts, and I’m glad I could be there for him.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/01/30/choose-joy-for-harper/