Back in 1999, my paternal grandmother who was about to turn 85 years old, asked me her youngest grandchild to write her eulogy as she knew I wrote poetry and she also wanted to know what I would write.
It took me a little while but I wrote the following piece. Now, I refer to a woman/wife and this was due to the fact that I was not out at the time. My Nana, Ethel Mae (Young) Edmonds, died on August 17, 2003 and at her funeral I was so upset I could not read it myself but it was read on my behalf as I had promised her that it would be. People loved it and I had at least a dozen people ask for a copy which I gladly provided.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends, Family, Loved Ones….
Yesterday morning, a very special lady left this world to join her Heavenly Father. Personally, I’ve dreaded this day for many years, but I am not sad that she is gone. I am happy for her. She is now in a place that is far greater than any you could ever find on Earth. She has joined her husband and her Lord Jesus Christ in Heaven.
I’ve always thought that if I could find a woman like my dear grandmother, Ethel, I would marry her. For I saw in my Nana, as she preferred to be called, that which I wanted in a wife. I watched her serve her country for years in the American Red Cross, then I watched her serve her husband for even more years as he suffered from Parkinson’s disease. Since his death, she has had her own health problems to deal with and now she is at peace.
I tried a number of times to write a poem for her, but never with any success. The words simply would not come. So, I found one that expresses the same feelings. I would now like to read it to you.
She Was A Phantom Of Delight
She was a phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight;
A lovely apparition, sent
To be a moment’s ornament;
Her eyes as stars of twilight fair;
Like twilight’s, too, her dusky hair;
But all things else about her drawn
From May-time and the cheerful dawn;
A dancing shape, an image gay,
To haunt, to startle, and waylay.
I saw her upon nearer view,
A spirit, yet a woman too!
Her household motions light and free,
And steps of virgin-liberty;
A countenance in which did meet
Sweet records, promises as sweet;
A creature not too bright or good
For human nature’s daily food;
For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.
And now I see with eye serene
The very pulse of the machine;
A being breathing thoughtful breath,
A traveler between life and death;
The reason firm, the temperate will,
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
A perfect woman, nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command;
And yet a spirit still, and bright
With something of angelic light.
-- William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
She lived a life full and free. She raised two sons, she loved supreme. The day she asked me to write this part, it almost broke my weary heart. But I said yes, for it is true. I love my Nana through and through
She’s left us here with a legacy. She will always be with me, and you. She touched us. Brought us fear and joy and all those emotions you were afraid of. She touched each of us very deeply and we will not live without thinking, at least once a day, of that gentle heart and loving soul. All that we have, in the end that is truly important, are the people we touched. Not money, not fame, not strength, not thoughts. Just the people we touch.