With a full heart last week, I took some time to read through Leslie’s thread of messages to me from the year 2020, on Facebook messenger. She had initiated the outreach, graciously inviting me to contribute to her Wild Things and Castles in the Sky: A Guide to Choosing the Best Books for Children book project. I loved the idea immediately. Its inclusivity made me imagine heaven and I thought I had an idea and appropriate books for the anthology she envisioned. Leslie liked the sound of it too.
However, three edits in, impacted by Leslie’s health, personal family challenges of my own, Covid-19, and a need to pack up our home of eighteen years and move to Germany (plus the start of MA studies!) led me to realize I could not deliver on the project. I mournfully wrote to Leslie regretting the missed opportunity. Her humble response blew me away!
She actually tried to take responsibility, wishing she had known better, earlier, as she put it, how to walk me through the editing process to completion. When the book was published, I wrote to congratulate Leslie and again this Christlike woman still expressed the same generous, gracious response. I don’t know how it will be in Heaven, but I would like to think that Leslie Bustard will edit my writing there, to perfection, for the King’s glory! She already reflects His likeness in so many ways.
Peaceful journey Home, dear Sister,
Denise
This tribute by Denise Armstrong is part of an “In Memoriam” series we are running this week for our dear friend Leslie Anne Bustard.
The featured image is courtesy of Julie Jablonski and used with her kind permission for Cultivating.
Denise Armstrong (née Stair), blogs from a Christian cross-cultural perspective at denisesarmstrong.com. Born Jamaican, she received her Diploma in Education and a BA degree from Shortwood Teacher’s College and the University of the West Indies, Mona, in Jamaica.
She delights to serve in areas of Christian discipleship, alongside her husband Claude. Their marriage of over thirty years which has joyfully produced three ‘Jamerican’ offspring, has also generated much fodder for marriage ministry to young couples. They thoroughly enjoyed serving in this capacity in their recent five-year tour of duty in Germany where they ministered among the US military community there. She also earned an MA in Christian Cultural Apologetics while there.
Denise’s work in playwriting, poetry, and creative-non-fiction essays, has appeared on Jamaican television, in international poetry reading events, and in The Joyful Life and Cultivating, as well as in The Caribbean Writer, a Literary Journal of the Virgin Islands.
A sweet recollection, Denise! Thank you for this.
It was, Annie,
I also discovered in that thread, that the poem, ‘Comforter’ which I submitted to Leslie & Lancia for the Square Halo conference booklet, had first been shared with Leslie, early in our communication! We were trading infusion experiences. What comfort she now enjoys in His presence!
Denise