I attended a memorial service today for a good friend and fellow member of the Arizona Tremble Clefs, Lowell Schwalbe. He was a good man, wonderful musician and great role model.
Our West Side Tremble Clefs Group sang two songs led by our director, Sun Joo Lee.
We sang two songs, both of which bring back memories of another memorial service about twenty years ago in Monument, CO, A young lady who was a high school senior at Lewis-Palmer High School and her boyfriend died in an auto accident that took place on icy roads while driving to an event at University of CO at Boulder. She attended the Church at Woodmoor with her family where I sang in the choir. She was very bright and talented and was very well known in our community.
The service was held at the Tri-Lakes Chapel which was chosen because it could handle the large audience that was anticipated. Our church was asked to sing at the service. Two songs were selected, "How Great Thou Art" and "Amazing Grace". I was honored to be asked to be the soloist.
Today's service was both sad and celebratory. Lowell had lived a full life and accomplished so much. I am sorry to say that I don't remember the young lady or her boyfriend's names. Their service was made all the more heartbreaking by the fact that so much still lay ahead of them. But while the quantity of their lives was not what any of us would have wished for them, we can celebrate and be grateful for the quality of the life they had.
