Prayers For All Those Grieving The Passing of Ronnie Laviner

It is only because Covid-19 has closed the borders that will keep Brian and me from attending the funeral of our dear friend Ronnie Laviner and from bringing what little comfort we can to his wife, Barbara. Ronnie died last night at Duke Hospital in Wilmington, N.C. five days after surgery on a cancerous brain tumor. News of his death is all the more devastating because he had come through last Wednesday’s day-long surgery showing hopeful signs.

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“It was an embolism that happened after I had left the hospital last night. He didn’t suffer,” Barbara told us tearfully in a phone call earlier this morning. Barbara takes comfort in remembering her husband’s last words before surgery: “Either way, I win. If I make it through surgery, I win, and if I die and go to Heaven, I win.” The sadness of Ronnie’s passing doesn’t just permeate the lives of his widow, their close friends Dennis and Ardell but the whole of Providence Church, in Holly Ridge, N.C., where Ronnie was both an elder and a soloist in the church choir. Barbara and her husband, whom we nicknamed “Sir Ronnie” have long held a special place in the heart of CFP. They were the first American readers we were blessed enough to meet with in person. Back on Christmas Eve Day in 2008, Brian and I travelled to North Easton, Ma to visit the gravesite of Rosary Priest Fr. Patrick Peyton, seeking peace and solace after the first election of Barack Obama as president, which I wrote about in a column called “Rosaries in the Snow’. Barbara sent an email, thanking me for the column to which she attached a video of tenors Jason Catron, Mark David Williams and David Wise singing ‘The Lord’s Prayer’. It was the first time I ever heard of the three, who travel the world performing Christian music. A year later when we travelled to Topsail, N.C, which we regard as the most beautiful place on Earth, she met us for lunch.

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This led to our first Southern Christmas a year later, when Sir Ronnie served us with the perfect prime rib from a recipe we still use to this day. Tall in stature, big in heart, Ronnie was not short on humor. During our visit, every time we went out to eat with them, I ordered flounder. Being told about the difficulty to find flounder in Canada, he told Barbara to remind me in her emails that he always ate “Judi’s share” of flounder whenever they went out to eat. “I have to somehow get through being left down here, while Ronnie’s up there,” Barbara told us this morning, asking for prayers for all grieving Ronnie’s passing. We take comfort in knowing that Ronnie’s sister, Debbie, friends Dennis and Ardell, Pastor Bo and many other friends from Providence Baptist Church surround her with comfort and love. Comfort in knowing: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.- Psalm 34:18. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Barbara was the first one who sent me the video of Tenore singing ‘The Lord’s Prayer’. I send it back to her today along with multiple, fervent heartfelt prayers. Our mutual friend Doug Bronson says: “Please tell Barbara to look up in the sky tonight and she'll see a star that seems much brighter than normal! Ronnie is home!"

 

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