Remarkable

I think today was the first time in my youth of 55 years that I gave a great deal of thought to a person leaving their mark on my life. After attending the Memorial Service, and remembering myself at age of 21 working alongside Ellie, I realized there was alot more than the gold coin ring that she left with me for life. It was amazing how I could so readily remember her smile...after 36 yrs.. the perfect shaped lips and teeth, even the tones of her voice. As her nieces and nephews shared their stories, they were all things I had remembered about her too... and then I realized she was the same age I am right now during the year I spent with her. It was great to see the pictures of her life, see how things had turned out so beautiful for her. She met the man of her dreams at age 64, married him, sold her business at age 65 and proceeded to travel the world. She also wintered in Sun City, AZ but the thing surprising me the most was that she summered in an adorable, tiny cabin on Lake Shamineau where I used to attend Bible Camp with my own kids. I was pleasantly surprised when her brother's daughter came up to me afterwards and asked me to introduce myself, telling me that she recognized me from my time at the agency. I was grateful for her patience in answering my questions about Ellie's life and found out that she spent the last 4 yrs. at Friendship Village enduring the stages of Alzheimers, but still dressing to the nines with her beautiful, thick page-boy hair, and perfectly made up lips. The entire experience was heartwarming, and I'm so thankful I got to be a part of it. I gotta tell ya though, I've never sat with such a crowd of exquisitely dressed elderly, diamond clad, wealthy women! The lady to my left was a Mpls. born movie star by the name of Laura something who flew back for the service... she certainly had the face of a 20 yr. old under that Hollywood hat that she wore...gorgeous....but her hands? Hey, there were older looking, and more full of arthritis than mine...although her diamond ring was the size of the face on my watch :-) Obviously, when they re-did her face, she forgot about her hands.... too bad, but I'm proud that what you see with me is what God gave me to work with... I was part of the group of gals that came with their gold coin rings on though! What a legacy!