Conversing Angels
It has been a long time since my last blog entry and I doubt that many folks bother to check for new material any more. The best of intentions are often laid aside when inspiration cannot overcome inertia.
Last week Nancy and I journeyed to Carlisle, Pennsylvania for the memorial service of my Aunt Elinor. This was the aunt whom we visited a year ago December on her 100th birthday. She passed away at the age of 101 on January 19th, 2008. Her five children and many other family members were present for the service, held in the old Episcopal church on the town square of Carlisle.
Many kind and appropriate words were said, particularly two epistles from her Granddaughters. I thought that I’d add here a few of my own thoughts.
A long time ago I heard a wise man explain the difference between reputation and character. Reputation, he said, was what people say of you during your eulogy. Character is what the angels say of you in heaven. Knowing my dear Aunt Elinor, I suspect that over the past two weeks the angels have had much to discuss.
Carlisle was a refuge to me as a child. It was a summer home and an escape provided by my Aunt and Uncle Joe. Granddad and I would shelter there – I for a few weeks, he for a few months. He always had a tenuous relationship with his oldest daughter, while I tried my best to stay neutral.
Aunt Elinor’s grandmother was named Georgiana, a person I never met, but much revered in the Cooke family of the generation ahead of me. I have a niece, Georgiana Hulings Robertson, named in honor of the forbearer. As a symbol of the symmetry, the circle of live, on the very day that Aunt Elinor died, January 19, 2008, Georgiana gave birth to her first child, a daughter with the lovely name of Grace Carol.
Perhaps it would take a mathematician to figure out the percent age of genes and DNA that Grace and her great, great grandaunt share, but I hope that it is a fair portion of Elinor’s determination, her steadfastness, her curiosity and her intelligence. Should it be so, then some years in the future, I suggest that the angels will have another lively dialogue when it comes time to admit Grace.
posted by Tim & Nancy @ 6:29 AM
6 Comments:
Dear Tim and Nancy:
Please accept condolences from us at Readersandwritersblog.com for your loss of Aunt Elinor. We're sorry that it was not a happier occasion, but we're glad that, as you say, inspiration overcame inertia.
Aunt Elinor sounds like an inspirational person, and we are grateful to get to know something about her through your description. Thank you also for passing along the wisdom about reputation and character.
We check in at your blog most every day and will continue to do so as we await your next great adventure.
Best wishes.
Sid Leavitt
Know that our thoughts and prayers are with you at this time. Keep a smile on your face :)!
Visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sue_10512/
to see our life in photos.
With love,
Mike & Sue
OFAAF!
Thanks Tim--what a sweet and fitting tribute to a remarkable woman. That Grace was born on the same day as Elinor's passing is a miracle that reaffirms the natural processes of this life journey.
We've got a few more pictures up of our baby girl though I think you may have seen the first set.
Take care,
Matthew,Georgiana+Grace
I'm sorry to read this about your Aunt Elinor, Tim.
I recall a visit once, a long time ago, to your home in Va. Beach, when your mom invited our family over to meet her. Your mom spoke about the longevity of her Cook family line, of relatives who lived and prospered well into their nineties and of a few century elders just as mobile as octegenarians.
For some reason, whenever I see two very elderly people together on an outing, I often think about the "adventure" word which was used to manipulate everyone into the backyard from the add on porch. "Let's adventure outside and enjoy this sunshine a bit." I'm not sure who used it, but that word linked a wonderful enjoyment into something so routine--stepping outside. Believe it or not, your mother taught me a lot about perspective and slant, in the motives of men and historical events. She got me my very own subscription to National Geographic when I was a kid, and I read every amazing magazine cover to cover. As a young adult, she gifted me with 2 years of Time magazine. She gave me many, many magazines and newspapers through the years and I do believe it was she who "anonymously" had sent a wonderful newspaper to our mailbox in NJ, I'm not sure of the name of it now, but I believe it was Grit?
I met Margaurite Henry through your Mom, stopping at her home on the trip back to NJ, didn't see many of the horses she wrote about in her book. I honestly believe we met Stormy over a fence, and a cow. I have met people in my life who knew your mother as their teacher, and one man, a neighbor of mine in NJ in 1986, was her student in the early 1960s. I was there, just before she moved up to live with you, when several people stopped by, at seperate times, to catch up with her since she last saw them as students. They have all done well with their lives, and they let her know it was mainly because of her interest in their lives in and out of the school room. She touched the hems of many garments worn by diverse human beings--young, old, of so many nationalities and races. I believe you have been gracing the lives of all people you've met and will greet throughout your unlimitless life. You, too, reach beyond the horizons where all is comfortable and tame, searching just beyond that hill or yonder mountain for what will touch your own soul, to connect to LIFE.
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