Goodbye Aunt Annie
posted by jordan - Thursday, September 11, 2008, 9:35 AM
My Aunt Annie has passed away. She just celebrated her 106th birthday. I have wonderful memories of her warmth and her spunk.
The following is the eulogy delivered at Aunt Anne's funeral:
The Eulogy For My Grandmother
By Richard McGinis
I have spoken to several friends about my grandmother' s
passing. We speak of the history she saw made in her life –
electricity, automobiles, radio. The telephone, TV, two World Wars,
antibiotics.
I joke about her legendary thrift, and my own presumption of
immortality given her genetic makeup.
But her legacy is not about longevity or history. As I have had the
chance to speak to a small portion of the people whose lives she
touched, I have become aware that her legacy is something much more
important. Whether the story is about how she made sure that poor
children in her neighborhood had something to eat during hard times
from the small store she ran with my grandfather, or the sisters she
paid to put through nursing school, or the Sundays she spent
comforting a terminally ill neighbor, bringing food and washing
linens, or knowing how to help my cousin come to terms with the death
of her father, knowing just what to say, and how. Or, finally, the
example she was to the women of our family, by being ahead of her
time as a working woman with a strong belief in education, and the
freedom that it brings. Her legacy, it seems clear to me, is one of a
life led in genuine love and service to others, and her earnest
desire to give others a hand up to a better life, and a better way of
living.
Indeed, this legacy is a very powerful one, a forceful example of the
best kind of life that we can all live when we take a real interest
in each other's well being. As we go on with her in our hearts, we
take with us a vision of a powerful transforming force in our lives,
and the lives of those whom we touch in turn. This vision makes us
all better people, and shows us the way to the fullest sort of life –
a life full of love, love carried into fullest action by a commitment
to powerful values, an abiding faith in a higher power, in each
other, and in each other's basic goodness.
As we go back to our day-to-day lives, let us honor her memory and
bear witness to the strength of her example, remembering that it was
not simply how long she lived that mattered most-it was how well.
The following is the eulogy delivered at Aunt Anne's funeral:
The Eulogy For My Grandmother
By Richard McGinis
I have spoken to several friends about my grandmother' s
passing. We speak of the history she saw made in her life –
electricity, automobiles, radio. The telephone, TV, two World Wars,
antibiotics.
I joke about her legendary thrift, and my own presumption of
immortality given her genetic makeup.
But her legacy is not about longevity or history. As I have had the
chance to speak to a small portion of the people whose lives she
touched, I have become aware that her legacy is something much more
important. Whether the story is about how she made sure that poor
children in her neighborhood had something to eat during hard times
from the small store she ran with my grandfather, or the sisters she
paid to put through nursing school, or the Sundays she spent
comforting a terminally ill neighbor, bringing food and washing
linens, or knowing how to help my cousin come to terms with the death
of her father, knowing just what to say, and how. Or, finally, the
example she was to the women of our family, by being ahead of her
time as a working woman with a strong belief in education, and the
freedom that it brings. Her legacy, it seems clear to me, is one of a
life led in genuine love and service to others, and her earnest
desire to give others a hand up to a better life, and a better way of
living.
Indeed, this legacy is a very powerful one, a forceful example of the
best kind of life that we can all live when we take a real interest
in each other's well being. As we go on with her in our hearts, we
take with us a vision of a powerful transforming force in our lives,
and the lives of those whom we touch in turn. This vision makes us
all better people, and shows us the way to the fullest sort of life –
a life full of love, love carried into fullest action by a commitment
to powerful values, an abiding faith in a higher power, in each
other, and in each other's basic goodness.
As we go back to our day-to-day lives, let us honor her memory and
bear witness to the strength of her example, remembering that it was
not simply how long she lived that mattered most-it was how well.
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