In Memoriam

This is maybe the hardest post I’ve written to date.  I’m trying in words to honor my mother-in-law who died last week at the age of 86.  She was small in stature but had a large, quick-witted personality.  She was a historian and university librarian, and amazed me with the depth of her knowledge.  She graduated high school early, and went to the University of Chicago at the age of 16.  I was truly in awe of just how smart she was. We would spend hours talking about literature and historical events.  She taught me so much about history, and I loved discussing Jane Austen, Tolkien, Kenneth Grahame and multitudes of other authors.  Wind in the Willows was one of her favorite children’s books, but she also adored Winnie the Pooh and Paddington.  My mother-in-law was also a dog lover and over the years had four active terriers, the naughtiest being Penny, a Jack Russell, and the most devoted and her last dog, Charlie.  When I’d come to visit, we spent time playing with her dogs and watching black & white films from the 1930’s and 40’s.  Two of her favorites were Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948, Carey Grant and Myrna Loy) and Christmas in Connecticut (1945, Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan).  I loved visiting with her on December nights and binge watching these films with her.  The movies she loved were always hopeful with a happy ending. She requested to be buried in a yellow floral summer dress, which she wore when she lived in Hawaii.  I smiled when I saw the list of her requests: she wanted to be buried with three books (Persuasion, Wind in the Willows, Lord of the Rings), photos of her four dogs, a copy of a speech she gave to the American Library Association one year, and that yellow dress.  I think she had written her own happy ending. I hope she is truly at peace wearing that beautiful flowing yellow dress, looking out into the Pacific Ocean under palm trees with a stack of books by her side, and small terrier dogs in the distance yapping at the waves.