On May 2, more than two months after Eric’s passing, Rev. A. E. Armstrong and Rev. George King knocked on Florence Liddell’s door. It was a day she would never forget. Her heart shattered as the news set in. She dropped to the stairwell and sobbed uncontrollably with her mother. Maureen and Heather followed the sounds of sadness.
“What’s wrong?” the girls asked.
“Daddy is in heaven with Bumpa,” Florence said past her sobs.
That afternoon, Patricia came home, anxious to tell her mother that she had won first place at a school track meet. But her fleeting joy evaporated. Together with her mother and sisters, she would learn a new kind of endurance.
On May 5, 1945, Toronto honored Eric with a memorial service at Carlton Street United Church. The next two days culminated with a global celebration of victory in Europe (V-E Day), which only added irony to the injury suffered by the Liddell/MacKenzie family. Their hope for the resolution of war for so long, and its fulfillment, seemed forever spoiled by irreplaceable loss.
On May 27, 1945, Morningside Congregational Church in Edinburgh, Scotland, observed a memorial for Eric. There, his Scottish siblings, extended relatives, and friends lamented together in loving remembrance. More than one thousand people attended, packing the church to overflowing.
D. P. Thomson attended the service, later commenting,
The details of the last few years of his life are not yet known to us, but we can be certain that under the most severe of all trials, he exhibited just those qualities which he showed in his sporting life. His was perhaps a short one; but his work, as he clearly saw it, and, as we believe divinely inspired, carried out away from the applause of the crowd, will remain an inspiration to many. In these days of exaggerated hero worship and publicity for sporting champions, Eric Liddell’s example reminds us to put things in their proper perspective. Sport to him was sport—not the be-all and end-all—and success in it did not prevent him from picking out the things spiritual from the things temporal. He was an example which must have helped others to make a similar choice.[114]
All of Scotland mourned in a Saltire salute for their beloved son. The Scottish flag hung at half-mast for a good while in honor of Scotland’s national treasure. England’s Union Jack followed suit.
It is interesting to note that the Scottish Saltire flag bears St. Andrew’s cross—a white X-shaped cross across a blue field, which honors the stylistic martyrdom of St. Andrew. The beaches of St. Andrews, Scotland, later became the iconic backdrop of the 1981 blockbuster film Chariots of Fire, immortalizing Eric Liddell, running in all his glory among the legendary 1924 Olympians.
To those who miss him, or any faithful loved one in death, Eric left a bit of comfort behind in his theological writing about Holy Communion with the saints, those on earth with those in heaven. During the sacrament of Holy Communion, it is as if the skies are ripped open, uniting believers in the world with Christ and the saints who have fallen asleep in him.
Eric wrote,
Many have found the act of communion the means of grace by which they are best able to realize this great truth of our abiding in Christ, and Christ’s abiding in us. . . .
The sacrament also has its social aspect. From the beginning the disciples used to meet together for a service in memory of our Lord which they called the Breaking of the Bread. At first it was an ordinary meal (called the Love Feast) and ended with the Lord’s Supper being observed. In this way it was a reminder that Christian discipleship is not a solitary life, but a life in which we are united together in a great fellowship because of our common relationship to Jesus Christ. Our fellowship with Christ finds expression in a spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood in our attitudes to, and conduct with, one another. . . .
The fellowship of those we have known and loved is never more real than when we join with others in the act of communion with our Lord and Savior. We are part of—and in fellowship with—those who have gone before, who by faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, lived lovingly; who by patiently enduring, suffering, and serving have worked for his kingdom on earth.[115]
Those who miss the faithful departed need only look to Christ and the Holy Sacrament of Communion that he freely offers, connecting the two.
[110] David Michell, A Boy’s War (Singapore: Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 1988), http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/books/aBoysWar/ABoysWar(LaTotale)-pages.pdf
[111] D. P. Thomson, Scotland’s Greatest Athlete: The Eric Liddell Story (Barnoak, Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland: Research Unit, 1970), 208–17. These and the following words are a composite of the many praises lauded over Eric at his funeral.
[112] Mary Taylor Previte, “A Song of Salvation at Weihsien Prison Camp,” Weihsien Picture Gallery, August 25, 1985, http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/Mprevite/inquirer/MPrevite.htm.
[113] David McCasland, Eric Liddell: Pure Gold: A New Biography of the Olympic Champion Who Inspired Chariots of Fire (Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House, 2001), 286.
[114] D. P. Thomson, Eric H. Liddell: Athlete and Missionary (Barnoak, Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland: Research Unit, 1971), 212.
[115] Eric Liddell, The Disciplines of the Christian Life (New York: Ballantine Books, 1985), 120–21.
CHAPTER 27
A LIDDELL EPILOGUE
I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.
Job 19:25-26
A WEEK INTO HER KNOWN WIDOWHOOD, Florence summoned the strength to write back to the London Missionary Society. She knew she had to move forward. She had three precious little ones to consider, and she knew what Eric would have expected of her. She wrote to Mr. Cocker-Brown:
Dear Mr. Cocker-Brown:
It is over a week since Dr. Armstrong and Mr. King
