I appreciate this opportunity to speak before you and give you a feeling for what Aunt Judy meant to me. As this is my first time doing this, I’d appreciate it if you please forgive me if I fumble this a bit as I am not used to public speaking. Anyway, this week past I have been consumed by the question of what I would say were we to find ourselves in this place at this time. It’s been in the back of my mind pretty much since I came to Fayetteville on Thursday last to see her in the hospital for what would be the final time,
What would I say about a life well-lived?
I could speak about the countless stories that she told me of growing up in rural Minnesota and moving to the big city of Duluth. Or I could speak of the stories of her time in the U.S. Army Women’s Auxiliary Corps. Or how about the many stories of her raising Lee and Anne through various postings in the US and abroad? Thank you Lee for handling this part of the story!
So imagine if you will that I’m driving home to Clayton after the visiting her at Cape Fear Valley Hospital in the early hours of Friday morning. It’s a rather lonely road but I make it back to the house safely and I look in on my son Nicholas who was sleeping peacefully and suddenly I realised that the answer was laying right there in the crib.
The first law of the bards is that you write what you know!
With that in mind, I’m going to tell you what I know. Aunt Judy and I met in 1974 and you could tell straightaway that she was one of the special ones who had an amazing ability to relate with children on their level and make them feel really comfortable with her. You couldn’t help but to notice it and be drawn in by it…it was almost a magical power, if you will.
How many times had we gone out to Captain Jerry’s or Rainbow or some other restaurant where a child would be crying their head off and before you knew it, the child was in her arms and she was talking to them and calming them down? More times than I can count, I can tell you!
Even the name Aunt Judy was an example of this. When we first met, we talked it over about what I was supposed to call her. We noodled over this for a while and finally she suggested Aunt Judy and Uncle Walter because it would be easier for a young one of four years old to handle and it was special! And it really was!
At that point, I became what she would jokingly refer to as one of her strays that she had a habit of picking up wherever she went!
Some of those strays stuck around for quite a while…some of them stayed for the duration of a meal in a restaurant. That really got me to thinking…
How many of us strays really grew up over the years in that little kitchen on Ryan Street?
Of course, there was Anne and Lee…her children. And then there was their friends who grew up there with them. I see Sandy there in the back of this chapel and I saw Dan last night…two of her strays that came before me.
Then there was me showing up in 1974 and sticking around for a while. Mr. Etzkorn’s children and ultimately grandchildren next door. There was Mr. and Mrs. Peters on the other side of the house…Mrs. Pete with the ready smile and the big candy bar and Mr. Pete who Aunt Judy and Uncle Walter cared for after Mrs. Pete passed away. Young Bryce from across the street who she took care of (and I occasionally got into disagreements with). Then there was Joey Fitzgerald and (later his sister Anna) who would come to visit his other mommy and would ultimately be diagnosed with and beat leukemia.
All of us, young and old alike…each of us one of Aunt Judy’s strays!
Through the years, no matter where she went or what she did, you could be certain that there was a child near by who would also become one of her strays. The Pied Piper of Hamlin had nothing on her…children just couldn’t help but to love her and she loved them. She certainly had the training for it being among the oldest of twelve children and caring for a lot of her brothers and sisters!
As I’m looking down upon my son Nicholas sleeping peacefully in his crib, it really struck me that here was one more of her strays in a long line of them. Nicholas had met her for the first time a few months ago when we all visited and went out to the Thai Pepper. And there she was doing what she always did…relating to and loving a child and making him one of her many strays.
And then I really got to thinking…how many lives had she touched just by taking us in and making them as much a part of her family as the ones born to it? She touched so many of our lives and now that her strays now have children and in some cases grandchildren, how many lives has her strays touched? And how many lives will their children and grandchildren touch?
Father Kelly really hit the nail on the head…hers was a life that was very well-lived and the effects of it will be felt well after her passing through all of her strays she cared for through the years.
So Aunt Judy, from one stray who stuck around for quite a while, thank you for all you’ve done for all of us!
Thank you for your time. Thank you, Father Kelly.