It’s Easter Sunday morning and I am thinking of Betty Fulton. Every Easter I remember her and her reminder that the proper Easter greeting is NOT,
“Happy Easter,” but, “He is risen.”
She drilled it in to me and every one of her Sunday school students, as well as the proper Easter response,
“He is risen, indeed.”
I last saw Mrs. Fulton at my youngest brother’s wedding some 30 years ago. She was not only my Sunday school teacher, but a friend of my mother’s and larger than life. I am not certain which came first – Sunday school teacher or family friend. She and her husband Bill, would come to visit on the weekends, they lived close and sometimes we would go to their home, but mostly they would visit and talk at the table in the kitchen laughing and telling stories.
Mrs. Fulton grew up in New Orleans and had stories and unique ways of saying things. Mrs. Fulton was a few years older than my mother but she never aged – she celebrated her 39th birthday, over, every year.
She talked fast. She talked loud. And she had a great laugh. One of the words she used still sticks in my head, ‘dumaflache’. It’s pronounced “doom-a-flatch-ee.” The meaning of the word was anything unknown. It was used in casual conversation when she could not remember the name of an object she was talking about or wanted me, or one of my brothers to fetch for her.
“Grab that dumaflache for me, please.” She‘d ask. And we’d get it for her and laugh. That was a long time ago, but it’s still fresh in my memory.
Mrs. Fulton was my Sunday school teacher for as long as I can remember. And she was my mom’s friend for even longer.
She passed away several years ago and I sent a card to her daughter with a short note. I shared the lesson which I have never forgotten.
“He is risen.”
“He is risen, indeed.”
Yesterday, we worked in the yard spreading mulch to the front bed, cleaning sticks and debris from last fall. Last night we visited the Daffodil Glade and captured our family’s images for another year. Friday afternoon, we mowed the front yard and if our kids still did an Easter egg hunt, we’d be out looking for them right now. But those days are past.
Today is going to be a great day. Easter baskets, Easter Sunday church, Easter dinner with the family, phone calls to my mother and a laugh about Mrs. Fulton. He is risen! Making the Days Count, one day at a time, one Easter greeting response never forgotten.
“He is risen, indeed.”