A month ago, while my husband and I were traveling to celebrate my big 4-0, a fellow Girl Scout leader passed away unexpectedly. Her death left me reeling. She was a fellow Junior leader, a fellow mother of twins, a school volunteer, a friend, and a beautiful person; I will miss her dearly.

The neighborhood was similarly shocked at our loss and floundered as to how to appropriately mourn our loss and celebrate her life. We settled for a brief memorial at our monthly neighborhood meeting. The leader of her sister troop brought a picture of her taken at a Girl Scout event just two weeks before her death and her Juniors lit candles, recited the Girl Scout law and promise and a poem and sang a song to her memory. I had the honor of concluding the memorial and chose to read a Green Angel poem in memory of my friend.

Angel in Green

Having left mortal earth, I passed through Heaven's Gate
And while anxiously awaiting the outcome of my fate
I walked among the Angels all robed in purest white
Whereupon I saw one figure which cast a greenish light.

She sat upon a misty cloud, a harp held to her breast
In a flowing, blowing gown of green unlike all the rest;
I asked what great deed she'd done to earn the special hue
That gave her color where others had none, or maybe just a few.

She said "On earth I sought no fame, fortune was not my goal,
I shunned the power of politics and worked without a toll;
I spent my time with children, helping them to grow
For as you reap in life, so must you learn to sow."

"You see...", she said, "the dividends while growing up I'd share
I returned where many others were too self-involved to care.
Girl Scouting was my choice of roads to follow in my quest
For among the girls I found a love deeper than the rest."

"A teacher was I, my work was hard, I had no diploma or pay
But where family and institutions failed, I help show them the way.
The lessons I taught were obscure and difficult to see
For they didn't have names like 'spelling', 'math', or geometry'."

"They were lessons in life delivered through guided experience
And they taught such things as character, spirit, and confidence.
Though on earth my life was blessed, it's even more so today
For when I look down I see my work, as my girls show others the way."

"On earth Girl Scouting taught me to leave things better than before
And the same applies to that mortal place where life never was a bore.
Now having lived by that Girl Scouting rule in every earthly endeavor
I have become an Angel in green and shall be a Girl Scout forever."


(c) Shirley Rhodes, The Patch Corner 1986
Rights to duplication and publication not for profit are granted to
any registered Girl Scouts