Remembering Nelson’s Mumbai victims

FABER - Gathered on a breezy day and nestled into pastoral confines on the cusp of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a spiritual community bade love and farewell to a Nelson County father and daughter who died in the Mumbai terrorist attacks last month in India.

Sunday’s memorial capped a weekend gathering at the Synchronicity Foundation nonprofit spiritual community, including a meditation and teleconference on Saturday, a Vedic funeral ritual Sunday morning and then the memorial service, in a hall with a small stage adorned with white lilies, red and white roses, poinsettias and carnations.

A basket filled with packs of tissue sat beside the front door of the sanctuary building, and a sign across the entrance read, “In memoriam, Alan and Naomi Scherr,“ with columns adorned with garlands and purple sashes.

On the stage, photos of the lost, one of Naomi taken only recently and one of Scherr and his wife, Kia.

The father and daughter died Nov. 26 in a café at the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai when gunmen fired. The Scherrs had been among a group of 25. Survivors were among the more than 200 people at the memorial Saturday.

Mourners, given to spirituality, experienced grief and joy during the weekend, said Bobbie Garvey, a Synchronicity vice president and managing director. Scherr also was a vice president of the nonprofit foundation and edited its books, one of the products they sell to aid in meditation and spiritual learning.

Scherr lived with his family on the foundation’s 400-plus acres, and a small community of associates live across Adial Road from the facilities in northern Nelson County.

The foundation has installed an eternal flame on the grounds, lit from fire from Sunday morning’s ritual.

“It’s been a very intense weekend,“ Garvey said, with adherents alternating between spiritual insight and grief counseling, as they navigated it all in the way they relate to the world: Gaining knowledge, seeking truth, meditation and personal growth. “I’d call it both ends of the relative reality,“ Garvey said.

Anger did not punctuate the weekend or the memorial. Kia Scherr extended forgiveness to the assailants in her first comments after her husband and daughter died, a theme that continues.

“In reality, everything is one, all is one, and we send love,“ Garvey said of the attackers.

During the memorial service, Kia Scherr, wearing a purple velour jacket and black blouse and slacks, sat beneath Naomi’s portrait.

She often smiled softly.

Master Charles Cannon, Synchronicity’s spiritual leader, wore a brown flowing robe and sat beneath the portrait of Alan and Kia Scherr.

Naila Alam, CEO of the Herndon-based nonprofit Express Care humanitarian organization, quoted the Koran, expressed the sympathies of Muslim communities and characterized terrorists as “lost souls” who create a ripple effect worldwide, one that caring people must stand up to and oppose.

“We can certainly make sure we don’t have to face loss again,“ said Alam, who also read a message of sympathy from the embassy of Pakistan in Washington, D.C. The message stated that the attacks were “condemned by Pakistanis worldwide.“

The 10 Mumbai attackers were Pakistani.

The Scherrs’ loved ones also spoke, sometimes fighting tears. Scherr was a devoted husband and father known as “simply Al,“ said his brother, Mark Scherr, who recalled he was a brilliant scholar and teacher who always followed his own path, loved ham radios and was “sometimes even weird,“ to laughter.

Naomi had overcome childhood shyness and was “boiling over with enthusiasm.“

“They went on this once-in-a-lifetime trip, and it became the trip of their lifetime,“ he said.

Kia Scherr’s brother and her sons Adam and Aaron Butler (Naomi’s half-brothers), spoke lovingly.

Aaron Butler read a poem he had written four hours after he learned that she and his stepfather had died, titled, “In the Sky.“

“I can’t wait to hold hands with you in the sky,“ he ended, in tears.

Cannon eulogized the father and daughter.

“There is only one,“ he said slowly and soothingly, as the gathering hung on his steady, deliberate diction. “This is the experience of life that Alan and Naomi lived, it was their philosophy of life, our philosophy of life.

“And they lived it every day.“

He quoted Longfellow: “Life is real, life is earnest, and the grave is not its goal.“ And Emerson: “It is not the length of life, but the depth of life.“

Alan and Naomi remain among them in subtle ways, Cannon said, and if those who love them are aware, then “they are closer to us than our own breath.“

“How whole can you be?“ Cannon asked the gathering. “How fulfilled and free in each moment? It is the depth of life that is the real contribution.“

Scherr was like a brother, Cannon said. “And now, he’s the lucky one.“

Cannon said he thought of Scherr after his passing, seeing him seemingly in a subtle form, and noted his wry humor.

“And he looked at me laughing, ‘We’re in a good place, you’re still there,‘“ Cannon said, to more laughter.

“The memory I will choose of Naomi is her as a little girl, in her angel costume,“ Cannon said, with wings and a star-tipped wand.

The memorial ended with a recording of one of Scherr’s favorite songs, sung by Neil Young - John Lennon’s “Imagine,“ and with Kia greeting a long line of well-wishers and still smiling softly.