My mother's memorial

As a family, we had a graveside service for my mother last Sunday morning. It was really lovely -- thanks to Jeannette for putting it all together!

In the afternoon, we had a memorial service at the Herzstein Memorial Museum.

The pastor Bess referred us to was excellent. He could not have been better! Part of the memorial included an opportunity for anyone to get up and talk about my mother. Jeannette and I were the only ones who did.

I think everybody was crying by the time we were both done, and nobody could imagine putting together a coherent sentence.

I hope Jeannette will post what she wrote and read. It was ... wow. Absolutely incredible and wonderful.

When she started, she said she was a writer, not a speaker, so she was going to read what she'd written.

[edit: here's a link to Jeannette's Blog - Darlingtonia Californica: Funeral Observances on August 19]

After she spoke, I got up.

I said ...

Jeannette says she's a writer. Well, I would say she's organized. I left MY notes at the hotel!

You may never have noticed, but we never actually called our mom "Mom." She was Mama or Mommy when we were little, and later we graduated to calling her "Mother." I never made the leap, though. I always called her "Mommy."

One of my greatest memories is how she would always worry about us.

I know when I drove down to visit, she expected me to call when I left so she'd know when to expect me.

Invariably when I'd arrive, she'd say, "You can't possibly be here this soon!"

Soon, I learned to call her twenty to thirty minutes before actually leaving, saying something like, "We're just about ready to hit the road."

I was trying to compensate a bit for my lead foot, and I really was telling the truth!

In spite of all that, I still very often would hear, "You can't possibly be here this soon!"

And now, what I want to say to my mother is ... "You can't possibly be here this soon."

* * * * * * *

Rebecca provided the music -- she'd downloaded some of our mother's favorite music onto her i-pod. We heard part of "Four Seasons" and closed the memorial with "On Eagle's Wings."

And God will raise you up on eagle's wings,

bear you on the breath of dawn,

make you to shine like the sun,

and hold you in the palm of His hand.