Henning Ross-Jensen
This is a very difficult thing for me to do. How can a person speak
about the life of a man who was so many different things to so many different
people? How can a person do justice to a person such as Henning? I was asked to
do this, and I will try, but I certainly do not feel adequate for the task.
We all remember Henning as the very friendly, jovial person. Sunday after Sunday, day after day, no matter where one would meet Henning, there was always a little visit, a kind word, a gentle farewell, and a nice smile in parting. Until his last days, even in the hospital, that gentle greeting, with the smile, a laugh and the wave of the hand, remained. In fact, in his last days, his greeting became warmer and kinder. His acceptance and forgiveness became softer and easier. He was that friendly, true gentleman until the end.
Most of us know about how he worked in the insurance business. He was an honest man, never selling someone what was not needed and never selling someone more than was needed. Yet, he sold some of the biggest contracts ever sold by his company in Quebec. His clients were workers and doctors, labourers and architects; he could deal with them all. The miracle was in how he saw his clients as people to be cared for. In his business, he could handle life and death as sensitively as a minister or doctor, and people sought him out for that.
What many of us remember about Henning is how he had ideals and how he strove hard to achieve those ideals. In particular, he had that sense of ideal or mission to do with his church, here in Montreal, in Kitchener at the synod level, and in Winnipeg at the national level. Many of us remember how he pushed and nudged and prodded to get the church to stay on track, to stay focused, and to stay committed to its mission. He fought and argued for that. Many of us were often amazed at how this man, with the help of his wife, could raise the sights of the congregation. Henning did this with a sense of integrity, style and class; there was a quality about him that one had to respect. It was a quality that many of us should choose to emulate. He was a good example for all of us to follow.
With his passing, he left a goal for us to achieve. It is now for us to step in and be that friendly, kind, and honest person. It is now for us to be people with integrity and quality, full of ideal, hope and faith. There he stands, challenging us to do that. We say, “Thank you, Henning, for all you have done for us.”