Gertrude and I

Pictured:  Dewey Dillon, Sandy (author), and my dear Gertrude McVay. This was taken at her birthday party that her niece, Jill, put together for her in 2008.












SHE HAD SOMETHING 'BETTER' TO DO






I took my place at what I believed to be the head of her casket and gave her my last gift ... my gift of a song, sung to the tune of Edelweiss:

 

May the Lord Mighty God,

Bless and keep you forever.

Grant you peace,

Perfect peace,

Courage in every endeavor.

Lift up your eyes,

And see His Face,

And His Grace forever.

May the Lord Mighty God,

Bless and keep you forever.

A song that I began with a broken voice, nervous, because folks were filing out from under the blue protective tent, heading to their cars and I feared they would think me daft. But by the end of the song, my voice was strong and I hoped it did her justice. Good-bye dear friend, my Gertrude Madre. (Madre - spanish for mother.)

Today, Gertrude McVay was laid to rest. She made it to 93. She was always trying to make it another year. I figured she'd try to out do her mother. Mary made it to 103. But on the night of her 93rd birthday she was admitted to the hospital and left us to do 'better' things, ten days later.

If she could have observed her own funeral, I think she would have been very moved. Several people got up and shared during the celebration of memories about her. I even went up, in spite of my fears of falling from my vertigo that has been haunting me for near a month now. I don't remember what I said! Wish I would have wrote it down! When I sat down and others shared ... I remembered even more memories that I could have added.

The good thing about a blog ... I can share those thoughts and memories here. I may be the only one writing/reading this, but hey, that's not really important to me. My writing has always been my vent, my canvas, my best friend most of the time. No one reading it, can't take that away.

So, this is what I would like to have said (and some of it I may have) during this special celebration. It is what I would have told her if she was still here and I'm sorry I missed my opportunity before. It's seems death is like that, it captures and silences all the should have and would haves.

I met Gertrude like many Ogallala hometowners, when I

enlisted her services to care for my daughter and step-son

when they were 7 years old. She was a popular choice in

Ogallala for her childcare services. But it wasn't until she

called me to come clean for her, over 10 years ago,

when I was just starting out in my newly formed

cleaning business, that I came to

 know her.

What began with me as her cleaning lady, soon developed

into a friendship and as the years went by ... more than

friendship. I grew to love this woman and adopted her as

my Mother. My own Mother and I were struggling at that

time. I didn't know then what I know now about

Alzheimer's. Gertrude and I had some long heart to

heart talks. At least I HAVE told her this one thing

many times ... she healed my heart and relationship

with my Mom. For that, I will be forever grateful.

During those years, I invited Gertude out several times

for special holiday meals with our family and on one Easter,

I also invited Dewey Dillon. After dinner we all sat down

and our family introduced Gertrude and Dewey to

the game of Dominoes. Oh what fun that was!

What I didn't know, until the next clean, was that

my daughter, Shelby, would drop off a game of Dominoes

to Gertrude. From that time on, it was the game of choice.

In fact, the couple of times I would sit and play with them,

 after a cleaning, I'd swear there were new rules to the

game. Every time after that surprise gift from Shelby,

Gertrude would praise her to me and profusely thank me

for introducing them to the game. I think she enjoyed and continued to play the game when she went to the Grant home.

This woman loved her clothes. I could so identify with that!

 She also loved her jewelry. Again, I could identify with that.

She collected angels. I collected lots of other stuff that

could match her thousands of angels throughout her home.

She always looked beautiful. Her hair fixed, her cute outfits

with her favorite jewelry which was often angel pins, she

was a classy lady. I looked up to her and enjoyed that we

had so much in common. Both of us LOVED to go thrift shop shopping! No Macy's or Dillard's for us!!

There is so much more I could tell you about this

amazing woman but I guess this is only important to me

and I'm not good enough with my words to paint a picture

 that you would love as much as I do/did her. She

touched many hearts in our small towns of Ogallala

and Grant. She will be missed by many.

So, dear lady, I don't know it you can read this from

where you are, but I want to tell you I love you to the moon

and back! Thank you for that call to clean your home!

Thank you for wanting to be my friend. And thank you

for loving me. I bet you have your own angel wings now!

 If you do, I pray that God would let you come whisper

 in my ear and remind me of my healed heart or just

to give me one of your famous hugs and tell me those

 'I love you's',  you so freely handed out! I hope it's yer

mug I see, Gertrude Madre, coming to greet me

when it is my turn to go find something 'better' to do.