April 17, 2011

Dear Mother,

Do you remember my “scolding” you recently when you said you were ready to go on to be with the Lord rather than hanging around at the age of 93? I told you not to think like that – that we’d miss you so much if you weren’t here to be the family anchor, and keep us al in line. You looked at me and then remarked with your endearing humor – “You’ll get over it.” Well, I’ll get through it, because I can hear still hear you saying, “When things happen, you deal with it and move on.”

I so miss you so much, though. Our “girl talk” was so much fun. You were interested in everything I had to say, and you did more than just listen – you asked questions, laughed with me, and – when necessary – helped me to think differently about things. We had some great chats, didn’t we?

It occurs to me, however, that I haven’t actually lost you. I still hear you in my head – I know what you would say, what you would do, and how you would handle situations. When I look across the street I can almost believe you are still there. I have no idea that you can hear me if I talk to you, so I’m just going to write. Maybe in some weird, improbable way you’ll get the messages.

One quick note - if a funeral can be said to be a “success,” yours certainly was. Oliver used your memoirs and did a great job with the service – just the right amount of humor and remembrance. Jerrold preached and Becky sang. I felt comforted. Almost all of the Smith and Baker Clans turned out, and we had a warm family reunion – minus our beloved family matriarch, which put an understandable damper on things.

Okay, enough funeral stuff. What I really want to do is to keep you abreast of what’s going on here on Baker Street – and with the family and friends. I cleaned out almost your entire house last week except for the laundry room and the long cabinet in the hallway. I’ll get to those next week. In the meantime, Hop and Christen are moving in starting this weekend It’s going to be great to look across the road and see them there.

I’m going to go now and figure out how to turn this into an online blog that will allow me to keep writing you from anywhere. I think it’s going to be cathartic.

Oh! One more thing. . . Scott scanned in all of your memoirs and Ches is burning them to DVDs to send to each family member who wants one. More later!

Love from my heart,

Anne