Everyone has come from all over to be here for Aunt Winnie's memorial service this afternoon. As always happens, there has been a lot of laughter and remembering good times. It is Winnie's last gift to us, this gathering, this time together, to give thanks for her life and for the fact that she was ours.From the program: "Today, we all remember Winnie as she was in her prime, the bossy, no-nonsense, quick-to-laugh woman who visited her siblings and their families in Jamaica in the summers, the feminist before there was a feminist movement, the passionate advocate for civil rights with her curly gray afro and piercing green eyes. We all loved her madly and understood that she loved us back with a fierceness that kept us rooted. She was the steadfast big sister, the large-and in-charge mother of us all, the cool hip aunt from America who understood us better than our parents. As her sister Gloria put it, 'There was no part of my life in which Winnie did not play a starring role.'"
Winnie with two of her adoring grandnieces. This must have been taken in the spring of 2010, because my daughter is still wearing braces.
Wonderful tribute to what appears to have been an amazing woman. You are so very honoured to keep her spirits alive. I am sure her gifts, her strength and her inspiration will live on in you and your daughter.
ReplyDeleteLovely post!
ReplyDeleteThere is something sacred and good and right about everyone coming together, gathering, to remember. To celebrate, to morn. To love and hold each other. To honor the spirit of not just she who has gone on, but of all whom her spirit touched and inhabits.
ReplyDeletePeace, Angella. Love, too.
Thank you for introducing her to us and for letting us celebrate her, too. I like knowing that an angel will be celebrating with me on September 7 every year. With so much love to you and all of yours, Kimberly
ReplyDeleteYou and your family are indeed fortunate to have had such a special relationship in your lives.
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