A Look at Grief
Tragedy seldom gives warning. A pastor and his wife share how they dealt with a family's grief.
Peggy and Clayton Bell
October 1, 1980
Whether you're a pastor or a friend, helping those who grieve requires special wisdom.
We want to provide some help in these pages. Instead of textbook advice, we have decided to follow a pastor and his wife through a devastating tragedy that happened to one of the families in their church. Included in this article are the private thoughts of the grieving widow, which eloquently describe her traumatic experience, and the long, slow, prayerful path back to faith.
On Sunday, March 18, 1979, Mrs. Stephanie Ambrose May lost
* her husband, John Edward May, 51, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of May Petroleum; a business and civic leader in Dallas, he received a doctorate from Southern Methodist University, and had completed Harvard's advanced management program.
* their son, Davin Edward May, 22, a senior at the University of Texas majoring in petroleum engineering.
* their daughter, Karla Emily May, 18, a senior at Highland Park High School.
* their son-in-law, Richard Owen Snyder, 27, a landman for the R. L. Burns Corporation, and a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College, who was reared in Richmond, Virginia.
Dr. B. Clayton Bell is the pastor of the Highland Park Presbyterian Church, Dallas, Texas. He and his wife, Peggy, alternate in relating the events that intertwined their lives with the life of Stephanie Ambrose May.
CLAYTON: It was 6:20 on a Sunday evening-March 18, 1979.
I'll never forget it.
The first segment of Sixty Minutes had just ended and the commercial was on. It had been a busy day, starting early for me as all Sundays do. It had been a good day.
Then the phone rang. "Clayton, this is Marilyn Culwell. Cully just got a call from Aspen. John May's plane crashed after taking off and he's been killed."
I couldn't ...
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