Obituary of Lucy Eleanor Bond

Our daughter, Lucy Eleanor Bond, was born still at 7:18 the morning of Thursday, July 2, 2020. She weighed 1.5 ounces and was 4 inches long. Her body was tiny and wounded but perfect. When things had calmed down after the birth, we got to spend many hours saying “hello” to our precious Lucy Eleanor, though we didn’t yet know her by that name. Those are moments we will treasure forever. Taking her middle name first, we see in “Eleanor” a recollection of the Christian prayer, “Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison,” meaning, “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.” As we entrust our daughter to God’s mercy, we also pray that He would have mercy on us in our grief and pain. “Lucy” is partially a tribute to Meaghan’s paternal great-great-grandmother Lou Caraway Stubbs, a strong pioneer woman who crossed the prairie in a covered wagon at age 16 and settled the land that now forms most of Lubbock, Texas. “Lucy” comes from the Latin “lux” meaning light. We love the hope this meaning professes: that Lucy first opened her eyes not to the light of a hospital room or to the sun, moon, or stars of this world, but to the light of God’s Own presence. May light perpetual shine upon her. Primarily, “Lucy” is a tribute to Lucy Pevensie (later, Queen Lucy the Valiant), C.S. Lewis’ beloved character from The Chronicles of Narnia. She has an air of innocence and child-like faith and shares a beautiful intimacy with the great Lion Aslan, The Chronicles’ Christ-figure. As we contemplate our Lucy’s brief life, these episodes involving the literary Lucy seem especially appropriate to share: In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Lucy and her companions inadvertently sail to a dark island where nightmares become real. When all seems lost, Lucy prays, “Aslan, Aslan, if ever you loved us at all, send us help now.” Soon, a lone albatross appears above the ship, casting a light to guide it through the darkness. As the albatross flies near the ship, Lucy hears Aslan whisper to her, “Courage, dear heart.” We pray that God whispered comfort to our Lucy and gave her His courage during her last trial. Also in The Voyage of Dawn Treader, Lucy discovers a magic book containing a beautiful story, “for the refreshment of the spirit.” It’s the most wonderful story Lucy’s ever read, but upon reaching the end, she can’t remember the details, nor can she turn back the pages. Lucy later asks Aslan, “Shall I ever be able to read that story again…? Will you tell it to me, Aslan?” He responds, “Indeed, yes, I will tell it to you for years and years.” This promise finds its consummation in The Last Battle, as Lucy and her companions journey “further up and further in” to Aslan’s Country: “Then Aslan turned to them and said: ‘You do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be.’ Lucy said, ‘We’re so afraid of being sent away, Aslan. And you have sent us back to our own world so often.’ ‘No fear of that,’ said Aslan. ‘Have you not guessed?’ Their hearts leapt, and a wild hope rose within them. ‘There was a real railway accident,’ said Aslan softly. ‘Your father and mother and all of you are – as you used to call it in the Shadowlands – dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.’ And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion, but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” We didn’t get the blessing of knowing Lucy Eleanor Bond long in this life, but we entrust her and ourselves to Jesus’ light and mercy. Lucy is survived by her parents, Greg and Meaghan Bond, older brother Daniel, grandparents Jeff & Karla McNeill and Kent & Charlene Bond, uncle Patrick McNeill, and aunt Lisa, uncle Jeff, and cousin Liam Burt. Private graveside services were held at Houston Memorial Gardens on July 10th. Greg and Meaghan request donations in Lucy Eleanor’s name to the Mary Claire Project, which assists families with funeral expenses for miscarried and stillborn children and has been a great help to them in their time of need. http://www.maryclaireproject.com/