Yesterday I attended the funeral for Rus' great aunt Betty. She was his mom's aunt, and while I had met her on a few different occasions, I never really knew anything about her. Rus' mom is a convert to the church, so her extended family is not LDS. The funeral was held at the Methodist church, a beautiful building with devoted patrons and clergy. It seemed that the pastors knew her very well and that she had devoted many hours of service to her church community. I was so impressed that the sermons were so well tailored to the kind of person Aunt Betty was, someone (I learned), who majored in geology and loved to pull off on the side of the road and chip off a piece of rock "thousands of years in the making" just to see what it was made of...someone who was a weaver and spinner and dyer of wool and also a weaver of many close and intimate relationships. I learned that she had a very strong sense of community and was always looking to bring her family and friends together. I learned that while she was opinionated, she was also able to graciously confront or correct someone, and that friends found they could trust her because she was very open and not afraid to speak her mind. Most of all I learned that I really missed out on knowing an adventurous, vibrant woman who could have taught me so much. I took away two things from her funeral, first that I should always have something in my purse to work on in case I get stuck somewhere (a habit of hers I would like to adopt), and second that I should never under-value the potential of a friendship with someone, especially someone who is younger or older than me.
I hope to never learn to like another person at their funeral!
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