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Farewell to Glenn

Meeting for Worship on Sunday November 24th was agitated and upset; Glenn Althoff was in the hospital and things were not looking good. Messages were offered by Friends who had been to the hospital and knew just how dire the situation was. Glenn died that very afternoon. Moving in and out of the ICU were his sister Cheryl and a niece from New York state, a cousin from Southaven, several Friends from meeting, as well as from Adult Children of Alcoholics and Holy Trinity Church, and other friends who were close to Glenn.

How could Glenn, so full of life, pass from us so suddenly? As recently as September, he had sat at the Clerk’s table taking minutes for business meeting. We knew he had had health issues which had been difficult to diagnose, but this was different. It was acute leukemia, a disorder of the bone marrow which floods the body with white blood cells and causes organ failure. And it happens fast.

Glenn began coming to meeting with his partner, Mike, in 2009. In 2017 he asked for a clearness committee for membership. He was a very committed Quaker serving on House & Grounds, Ministry & Nurture, and Education & Events. He attended several yearly meetings of SAYMA in North Carolina, facilitated meetings for learning, and was looking forward to taking on more responsibility as recording clerk. He wrote a front-page piece for this newsletter in October 2017 about realizing that he had always been a Quaker even when he hadn’t known the name for it.

Glenn had many friends in the meeting. He and Rodney were like brothers; he was very close to Kate, walked dogs with Laura, and took road trips with them both. He helped the meeting with many needed projects: the concrete ramp at our kitchen door, our rain barrel, and the lights in our side yard among them... Rodney says that, as Glenn took his last breaths, the late afternoon sun broke through the clouds and shone through the openings in the ICU curtains bathing Glenn in a golden light.

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