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I've written a few essays over the years; kind folks have suggested that I should put them up for all to see. So here they are, in the best tradition of Web hubris. I haven't learned my lesson, so there's more to come, no doubt. In the meantime, I post small bits of work on the Weblog that I share with Dori Smith, which we call Backup Brain. It's been a lot of fun to do, and I hope you check it out.
I wrote this piece and sent it out as e-mail after I had a small heart attack in July of 1995. I figured that it would be better for me to tell people what had really happened rather than have them hear about it through rumor.
Family Eulogies
My mother died in 1990. At her funeral, my sister and brother-in-law came up to me, handed me a sheet of paper, and told me to read the eulogy, because my dad was too broken up to do it. I looked over what they had written, and it was fine, but not what I would have done for my mom. I took the 20 minutes before I had to get up to make some changes, but I always felt that I missed an opportunity to say a proper goodbye. I don't even have the words that I spoke that day, as they were typed on a manual typewriter and lost.
When my other sister, Pattie, died unexpectedly in February of 1998, I wrote and delivered her eulogy. I felt much better afterwards; I think that I did her proud.
My grandmother Mae died in December of 2000, and I got the call again. Thanks to Dori for her help on this one.