Just this last week, we had a ceremony in Morro Bay commemorating the life of Eva Claire Gatto. Most of the family just called her "GG" because she was the consumate Great Grandma everyone wishes they had. I was asked to write these words for the occasion:
"Yesterday we had a party. It was a gathering that brought several families together. There was much laughter. Confessions of non-prescription drug use may have been mentioned. KFC and Colonel Sanders and masked vigilantes as well. We ate food. Some of it sweet and delicious; some of it burnt and crunchy. It was a good party. So many good memories.
"Today we have a commemoration. For "Eve." For "Mom." For "Friend." For "Grandma." For "G.G." So much can be said about a person by the names people call them.. "Evie" has many names. She is the "Example." She is the "Matriarch." She is the "Lead Character" in so many of the good memories that we remembered yesterday. It is amazing to think of the impact she has had on her friends and family.
"I didn't have the opportunity to meet GG before I married Holli, but I sure did know something about her. "She's just WONDERFUL," Holli would say. "You're gonna love her!" Honestly, all I had to hear was that she was a great "Cook." (Which she was.) And, then when I did meet her, true to form, she was a Lady. Her heart was as open to me as it was to every other member of the family. And she became my "Grandma." She didn't even bat an eye.
"So what happens now? The age-old question continues to parade in front of us: What happens after this life? I'll wager that since all of us are still here, none of us has witnessed it to tell, but we are left with the question: What's next?
"Some of us may believe that a person is reborn into another body when our current body dies. Some of us may believe that nothing happens and that this is all there is. Others believe we pass into another phase of spiritual life awaiting judgment and resurrection.
"The trouble with the question is that the answer must needs be absolute. We don't choose our way. It is chosen for us. Maybe that is why there is so much confusion and sometimes fear and sadness when a loved one passes away. Will we ever see them again? Will someone ever see me again when I die?
"One thing is for sure though, life is a blessing and death is a blessing. We should not mourn Eve. We should honor her and remember her. We should keep her with us and revitalize her spirit by living to the fullest. 500 years ago the poet Edmund Spenser wrote, "Death is the end of woes..." And then again 100 years ago the cleric Henry Scott Hollard wrote, "Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived together is untouched, still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort...Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was...Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner. All is well."
I then closed with my testimony of what I believe happens after this life and said a prayer acknowledging Eve's great example to us all and wishing her well until we all see her again.
