Thursday, January 3, 2013

An Inadequate Tribute to a Fantastic Woman

        Today was my paternal grandmother's funeral. I just wanted to post the eulogy that i read during the service:

        My grandma was a very generous person. She loved to buy us gifts; beautiful clothes for my mother, many toys for my brother’s and me when we were young, books when we got a bit older. Mom actually had to ask her not to buy so many presents for us for Christmas one year when we were kids, so Grandma saved some of them and gave them to us throughout the following year. She would also often give us money for various reasons; $100 here and there toward our family vacations, monthly checques while Dad was attending Bible School, to help Sean buy a car, or put Matthew and me through private high school. Her generous nature also extended to her home. She let Matt live with her while attending university and when he started working as a high school teacher, and then opened her house up once more when Mom & Dad moved in with her four years ago.  And everyone who visited them felt her warm welcome as well.

        She was also gracious enough to put up with what she saw as a lack of grooming in us boys in the family. Sean’s hair is too long (She said at one point that if he didn’t cut it before she died she would drop things on his head from Heaven). She didn’t like my beard as it is now, or when i just had a goatee (at one family gathering she pointed out to me how my cousin had a good example of a well-groomed beard).

        In spite of our lack of polish, Grandma and Grandpa would always come to our school band and choir concerts. Once even, when Matthew was on tour in England, she arranged her own UK trip so she could attend. Grandma loved music, and played keyboards for her own enjoyment, as well as accordion, when she was younger. She never performed for anybody else, although she had a very good musical ear.

        Grandma had a wealth of knowledge and experiences that many people didn’t know about, because she was not the type to trumpet her accomplishments. One particularly intellectual young man said that she was the only older woman who could challenge him intellectually in conversation.  She had the ability to carry on a conversation with almost anyone because she knew a lot about many subjects, yet never expressed that knowledge in a way that made you feel dumb.  But, oh how she hated bad grammar, especially in menus and on signs.

        She had a great sense of humour and even appreciated Sean’s somewhat “earthy,” in her words, nature. She was our primary introduction to the wonderful world of British humour with shows like Mr. Bean, Monty Python, Wallace and Gromit. While she was in hospital, she told some of the nurses that they were glamorous enough to be on General Hospital.

        We found something she had written about nine years after moving to Winnipeg, which said: “I know that as long as I live the arctic...will be the image evoked by the word home”  We often heard her speaking Inuktitut on the phone with friends from Northern Qc.  We also often heard her talk about how she loved roaming the Northern tundra.  She was inspired by the visual beauty of nature wherever she went.  She especially loved the countryside of rural England.  And here  in Winnipeg she delighted in the many different shapes of our trees.  Recently, she rode two buses in order to take pictures of a particularly beautiful tree that she remembered seeing years ago.

        Squirrels were Grandma's favourite animals.  She and Grandpa both enjoyed throwing them peanuts for years.  She kept the birds fed in her back yard too.  But we would frequently see her scolding the blue jays for eating the squirrels’ peanuts, and adamently shooing away the pesky rabbit who insisted on eating her flowers.  She exulted over her little roses and throughout the summer there were always little vases of freshly cut flowers all over the house.

        She had pictures of Grandpa everywhere and often went to visit the cemetery where he was interred.  Although no marriage is perfect, she would say that with time “you forget about the bad moments, and are left only with good memories.  It seemed she thought of Mom more as a daughter than a daughter-in-law.  And Yok, was just as much her grand-child as us boys. When Yok started dating Matthew, she called our Grandma “Countess” because she already referred to Mom as “Mrs. Knight.”  She tried out a few other regal titles for Grandma, but “Countess” was Grandma’s favourite.  After Matt & Yok got engaged, she specifically told Yok that she hoped she could still be called “Countess." Matt & Yok often went on one and a half dates with Grandma to Ballet at the Park or restaurants she wanted to try out.

        Mom will really miss watching Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank with her.  They had such fun trying to predict how the millionaires would respond, and often discussed and reviewed scenarios throughout the week.  Mom is also worried about what she’ll do now that she has lost her live-in fashion consultant.

        When she found out she had cancer, Grandma said “Don’t worry about me.  I’m not too young.  I’ve had my 82 years."  We certainly are not worried about her, because of our belief that God is richly rewarding her for the many lives she impacted positively. That being said we are deeply saddened for having lost such a wonderful and beautiful member of our family.

2 comments: