Thursday afternoon I picked up three friends of ours from England: a dear elderly JW lady (who hates that term) who is headed for 80 faster than she'd like, her son, and her son-in-law. Son hasn't been "in" the Witnesses for years and years and years -- drifted out -- and SIL is an elder. I was nervous. Son knew I'd been out for a year but promised not to tell. Before SIL came over I casually mentioned that I hadn't been to meetings since Dad died (a slight exaggeration). I didn't know what to expect and was afraid this might be their last trip, but I was pleasantly surprised. Of course, dear not-old Jess said, as soon as she sat in the car while the guys loaded the trunk (boot) with luggage, "so, I hear you haven't been to meetings in a while." I groaned inwardly but said "yes, that's true." Everyone managed to restrain themselves until breakfast Friday morning, after I'd dropped the kids off at school, and then we sat down with a pot of tea and told them the whole story. They were properly gobsmacked, sincerely distressed, and not at all judgmental. In fact, Chris said that the SIL asked lots of questions when they were alone.
So I decided to give them a copy of the letter I wrote to the elders after Dad's death, as well as a copy of the letter the Society sent back to me three months later. Even Jess said that the Society's letter sounded "carefully worded" and they weren't impressed with the impersonal form letter. I could tell this situation really disturbed the elder, because he is a really great guy, and I was so relieved that they all lived up to my estimation of them.
Jess told me that her congregation's opinion on the Panorama program was that they were glad it was at 10:30 at night because maybe there would be few people watching it. She thought it was shameful what those poor people went through, and the only thing she could say is that "Jehovah would sort it out." She also said that I didn't need to be at meetings to have Jehovah's favor, and her SIL agreed with that assessment.
I know I'm rambling (I'm tired -- they left this afternoon and we did a ton of sightseeing, cooking, eating and drinking between Thursday and Monday), but I'm just relieved that we're all still friends. I don't like to keep things from my friends and I didn't want to lose them. I'm glad they love us just the way we are!
Nina