My gentle giant cousin, Charles III, passed away last week. He could play the piano so beautifully. He rarely spoke, but the music poured forth his whole life. One of my early memories of him is when all us cousins were playing football. I must have been 10 or 12 at the most. I remember he simply picked me up by the back of my belt and there I was running in mid-air, until he carried me over to our “sideline” and dropped me out of bounds. That’s how he politely declined to engage in the violence of the sport, lucky for me.
Candace and I watched the livestream service together this morning, and we so wish we could have driven up to Des Moines to join the family there in grieving and giving thanks for Charles’ miraculous, beautiful story. We choked back tears start to finish. The beautiful music throughout. Chris reading the opening scripture. And Joel’s words were a culmination to the beauty of the symbolism and music and meaning of the service. I’m so thankful for the faith of my family, and overjoyed to hear any telling of Charles’ story, and the last months of his pilgrimage here. Now Uncle Charles and Aunt Ilene have welcomed him home, and I imagine him playing piano with Grandma Jewell.
- Charles Franklin Magruder III (1955-2025). Thank you, John, for this beautiful obituary.
- The family have made available some of Charles’ music: Spotify. Apple Music.
“Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever! I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.… in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes — I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:23-27)
