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In memory: Tyson Norris
16 July 2008
Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister, Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church
When someone dies, there is a sense of incompleteness in the world. Even if the person existed simply at the edges of your consciousness, there is now space at those edges.
I remember Lyell Heise--the former minister of Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church--speaking at a graveside about finding a tree that had fallen during a storm. It had left a huge hole where its roots had been. He said the one who had died was like that tree, fallen and leaving a hole that could never be filled.That is a good description of what happens. There is a void left--and no one else can ever fill the hole left by the death of someone. Other people may take up the role, but it is never the same.
When death comes to an older person, there is resignation. Dying is a part of life--and how odd is that saying? I have had some older and incapacitated people tell me they have had enough and are waiting to die. I believe them because even though I have never experienced that feeling, I know I would not want to live to 150, strapped in a hospital bed for, say, 30 or 40 of those years.
But even here there is incredible loss. All the information, the experience and skills developed by each person disappears with ageing and is gone at death. What a waste.
But to lose someone young and vital as we have in the past week, that is a tragedy. Particularly for parents. For family. For friends.
Tyson Norris (pictured) died in a motocycle accident at Edgeworth on July 10. For we who knew Tyson, who studied here at Avondale to be a primary school teacher, there is now a hole in our landscape, and the closer you were to him, the larger that hole.
This is a time to support each other. Words are helpful, but there are no right words to say when death happens. Presence and care speaks louder than words.
There is only one cure for death--resurrection! That is why Jesus' claim of being the resurrection and the life is so important. That is why we hang out for Him to return with the loud command, the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call that wakes the dead.
I can't wait.
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