A Day in the Life of Angela Brady

The Funeral & Wedding We Nearly Forgot

People sometimes imagine that life in ministry is peaceful and predictable.

Bless their hearts.

Back in 1992, I was five months pregnant with our son, Joshua, and Todd and I had been pastoring a little country church in Wood, North Carolina, for about a year and a half.

When I say country, I mean country. There wasn't even a stoplight. The local country store had a handwritten sign out front that proudly advertised:

"Thick Fat Back & New Crop Navy Beans."

Now that's country.

A sweet young couple in our church had asked Todd to marry them. It would be the very first wedding he had ever officiated. He carefully walked them through premarital counseling while learning as he went, and I happily served as his unofficial secretary, wedding coordinator, and all-around helper. We've always made a pretty good team.

About a week and a half before the wedding, we drove to my hometown of Wilmington for what was supposed to be a quick visit. We were also delivering our old mattress to my mom because we had ordered a new one.

While we were there, I spent as much time as I could with my grandmother. I called her "Bamie" because, as a toddler, I couldn't pronounce "Granny," and somehow the nickname stuck.

Bamie wasn't feeling well. I even clipped her toenails while I visited with her and begged her to go to the doctor. She promised that if she still felt bad the next day, she would.

The morning we were leaving, she stayed in bed. My grandfather kept asking me when I was going back over to see her. Looking back, I've often wondered if he somehow sensed something wasn't right.

Just before we left town, I stopped by one more time to tell her goodbye.

Instead, I found my precious Bamie had passed away peacefully in her bed.

The days that followed were a blur of grief.

Todd stepped into the role every pastor hopes they'll never have to fill for their own family. He helped us make arrangements, stood beside us as we chose her casket, and lovingly preached her funeral. My mother gave Bamie the burial plot and vault she had purchased for herself years before.

I sang at my grandmother's funeral with tears streaming down my face.

After several extra days in Wilmington, we were emotionally exhausted and knew we needed to get home because Sunday was approaching, and Todd had to preach.

Somewhere during the drive home, we remembered something else.

We had already given my mom our old mattress.

Which meant...

We no longer had a bed.

So before heading home, we stopped and picked up our brand-new queen-size mattress.

Picture this: a young pastor and his pregnant wife driving down the highway with a queen mattress strapped to the roof of a Chevy Blazer.

We looked like we were moving across the country.

Or auditioning for The Beverly Hillbillies.

When we finally turned into the church driveway, we immediately noticed something strange.

The church parking lot was full.

Todd and I looked at each other with puzzled expressions.

Then, at exactly the same moment, it hit us.

I screamed...

"THE WEDDING!"

We had completely forgotten!

Todd jumped out of the Blazer before it had hardly stopped rolling and was shedding travel clothes all the way to the back door of the parsonage. I waddled as fast as a five-months-pregnant woman could, threw on a dress, grabbed what I needed, and hurried to the sanctuary.

Thankfully, our precious church family had already prepared a backup plan. They knew we had experienced a death in the family and had arranged for another minister to perform the ceremony if we didn't make it back in time.

But we did.

The wedding was beautiful.

The couple was married.

And our church laughed about "the funeral and wedding we nearly forgot" for years afterward.

Looking back, that week reminds me that ministry isn't lived in neat little compartments.

Life and death.

Joy and sorrow.

Laughter and tears.

Sometimes they all arrive in the very same week.

I'm thankful for a husband who faithfully loved both his family and his church, for a congregation that extended incredible grace to two very young pastors, and for a God who carried us through one of the most emotional weeks of our lives.

Sometimes the best memories aren't the ones we planned.

They're the ones only God could have written.

? Tea with Me — A Funeral & Wedding We Nearly Forgot ??

Have you ever experienced a week when life seemed to throw everything at you at once?

Sometimes the moments we remember most aren't the ones we carefully planned. They're the unexpected ones that leave us laughing, crying, and marveling at how God carries us through it all.

Today's Tea with Me takes us back to a very emotional week in our lives — a funeral, a wedding, and memories we still talk about years later.

Looking back, I'm reminded that even in the middle of sorrow, God gives us moments of joy, love, and grace.

So pour yourself a cup of tea, pull up a chair, and let me share a little piece of our journey.

Angela Brady, REALTOR® | A BRADY BROKERAGE

“Trust your Bunch with a Brady”
Serving Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Hope Mills, Raeford, Spring Lake, Cameron & surrounding North Carolina communities.