Wrapped in the sweet, hymnal embrace of their community, Johnny and Lloyd go to their graves

August 22, 2013: As his sons Jordon and Joe join the other pall bearers and carry my good friend Johnny Lee Aiken down the aisle of Barrow's Ukqeagvik Presbyeterian Church, the choir and congregation sing, My Savior First of All. They sing in Iñupiaq, and their voices blend together in a gentle, sweet, beautiful loving caress that wraps around all present. It is a communal embrace, both around the family to assure them that Johnny was loved and cherished in this community, will not be forgotten and those whose pain runs deepest will find support through the darkest days, and around Johnny, whose body may rest in this casket but whose soul, it is strongly believed here, has begun a new and exciting journey and has already been reunited with loved ones and the Savior he himself embraced before his death.

Johnny Lee Aiken, April 26, 1988. His father, Jonathan Aiken, Sr., had just harpooned a bowhead whale. Eli Solomon had followed with a shot from the shoulder gun. The whale had disappeared briefly beneath the surface, come back up, rolled over and died. It was an intant kill. "Praise God!" Kunuk had exclaimed as he raised his hands above his head. 

Johnny flung his arms around Claybo Solomon. They embraced.

August 21, 2013: The day before Johnny was buried, the community had also gathered in the same chapel for the funeral of another hunter who was well thought of in Barrow and across the Arctic Slope - Lloyd Nageak. He, too, would be carried out of the chapel wrapped in the sweet, loving, embrace of the community singing My Savior First of All. Before that, speeches of remembrance were made. Hymns were sung.

"How Great Thou Art!" Lloyd's brothers and sisters sing, with much help and support from the community.

Glimpses from Lloyd's life, as seen at his funeral.

To family members and friends of Lloyd and Johnny: I must leave here in just over an hour to begin my journey to Nuiqsut and from there on to Cross Island. I still have to pack. Yesterday, an unanticipated work-related emergency arose and I simply had to deal with it. It took the better part of the day and I did not complete it until midnight. I have made an initial pass through of all the photos I took at the funerals of August 21 and 22. I will still make and post the special albums for family and friends after I return home, sometime in mid to late September.

Comments

[Shaela]

I'm so sorry to hear about the passing of your dear friends. I feel like I know them a little from your writings. Particularly Johnny. Safe travels. Be well.