‘An empty chair at the table’

Submitted, letter to the editor
Published: June 2, 2008

A plaintive, heart-wrenching song from the Civil War sings: “There is an empty chair at the table.” It laments the loss of a soldier boy who would never return to the family circle. We have lost our son, husband and father Glenn Powell Anderson, and we grieve (“Augusta soccer loses two coaches,” May 20).
Humanity, community and education have an empty chair at the table – at Kate Collins Middle School, on soccer fields, St. John’s Episcopal Church and our homes. An astounding outpouring of gifts of love: more than 700 people at the middle school and more than 600 at his memorial service. Words, cards and food attest to the stature of this gentle man with the quick smile and hearty laugh in the face of growing pain and disability. Only now are we just beginning to fully comprehend and appreciate the impact he has had on us all. His memory makes us the better for it.
From near-death and baptism in the newborn nursery and through many travails, this man filled our lives with the gift of his presence for 52 years of love and service. “He is the kindest child I have ever known,” his gradeschool teacher said of him. “He is a good man,” was said of him over and over. Would that the rest of us be worthy of such accolades.
Glenn Powell Anderson now rests from his pain in the bosom of our good earth.
John Powell Anderson
Waynesboro
Editor’s note: John Powell Anderson was the father of Glenn Anderson, Waynesboro High School’s junior varsity soccer coach who died last month of a heart attack after undergoing hip replacement surgery.