Memorial service in OS

[Winston Kinch]

Beautiful. One suspects there are several wishes for services like this going out to the families of members of this listserv this morning.  I know mine has.  Thank you, Nancy Blake Mills.
Winston Kinch  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Blake Mills 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2001 10:13 PM
  Subject: Memorial service in OS


  Greetings,
  Synchronicity is amazing!  I have been planning to write about the OS service
  for my 92 yr. old mother on April 3, 01 here in Seaside, Oregon, USA and ask
  a similar question and/or note what we did.  Then up pops someone's similar
  thought.  No, I don't think it is morbid...death is another marker in the
  soul's journey.

  Here's what transpired.  In the beginning, I unconsciously started down the
  road to an OS service. I suggested to the funeral director, the minister and
  my family, a circle with aisles at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock, with my mother's
  casket in the middle.  It was to be placed low enough for the attendees to
  see each other over the flowers.  The minister was to have a battery
  microphone to walk around with at the same level as the audience.  He was not
  to be high up and beyond, behind the podium.

  I have to say my family, the funeral director and the minister all humored me
  in my grief, probably since I was the only family caregiver for my mother.
  However, there was some mild resistance.  "We don't have a stand low enough,"
  said the funeral man.   I persisted and said I was sure they could figure out
  a way.  They did.  Four boxes holding computer paper with a swath of tan
  material around it all, became the new stand.  The casket looked like it was
  floating in air.  Very, very nice.

  "We've never done this," objected the minister, until I drew the OS floor
  diagram. (that's when it hit me, I was setting up OS...I am a little slow
  figuring things out!)  He got the idea immediately.  His next challenge was
  to convince the janitor who was just putting the finishing touches on 100
  chairs, all neatly facing the high-up podium.

   "You were always a little different, sister-sue", said my family.  They were
  the last to convince.  Maybe because I have my parent's Finnish "sisu," they
  did not argue long. ("Sisu" means tenacity, perseverance, or stubborn beyond
  all reason).  We asked for people to share, some planned it, some were
  spontaeneous, some sang.  I could not speak for the tears choked my throat in
  grief, but, also, in the joy of hearing my mother's 9 year old
  great-granddaughter read a poem.  Here it is:

  "If my boundary stops here
  I have children to draw new maps on the world.
  They will draw the lines of my face.
  They will draw with my gestures my voice.
  They will speak my words thinking they have invented them.

  They will invent them.
  They will invent me.
  I will be planted again and again.
  I will wake in the eyes of their children's children.
  They will speak my words."

  From the book:   "Tamsen Donner:  A Woman's Journey"
  by: Ruth Whitman  (about the tragic Donner party)  I hope Ms Whitman will not
  mind me including this.

  We have a program of most of it and deep memories of the undocumented love
  and laughter.

  My sons now know my wishes for a memorial service.  Thank you, Harrison Owen.

  Kindest regards,
  Nancy Blake Mills

  *
  *
  ==========================================================
  OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
  ------------------------------
  To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
  view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
  Visit:

  http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20010420/671723b5/attachment-0017.htm>