Funeral Service for Edith Hern

Well, yesterday was the funeral, and what a day. I am soooo glad that Rick had so much family support, it was so needed. He had been terrified of sitting in the front pew all by himself, feeling more alone than ever in his life. In the end the family section was full up. There was Rick, Anthoney, me, Emily, Robin, Jerry, Tom, Cheryl (Hern), Iris (Hern), Florence (Auntie's cousin on the Casteel side), and Florence's niece.

There was a big turnout, maybe 150 people or more, and tons of flowers. There were people from her church, a wealth of Edith's friends, Rick and Anthoney's friends, and even some of Rick's clients who have become close friends with Edith over the years.

Before she died, Auntie had agreed to a SHORT service (versus just a graveside prayer which is what she originally wanted) because the weather has been very inclement, and it was to be performed by her pastor, Brad Ratliff. She had made him promise he would 'keep it short' and then she wrote it down and even underlined it, ha! The lady knew what she wanted and she was always organized.

On Friday afternoon, 'Brother' Burns opened the service. His wife Avilee Burns and Edith were very close friends and in fact Avilee was with Rick when Edith passed. Then Jim Riggins spoke and he gave a beautiful tribute to her. He and his wife Ann had also become very close to Auntie since she moved to Kansas. Then it was my turn, and I will post what I said in a separate post. (I don't have a script of what the others said and I believe it was mostly extemporaneous, but if they send me a transcript I will post it.) After me, Brad gave a sermon which didn't quite fit Auntie's request of "short" but showed how much all the people in her church cared for her.

Then we went to the gravesite, and it was cooooold and terribly windy. I thought Mom and Florence would be swept away by the wind. Fortunately, at this point Brad DID keep it short, offering a bible reading and prayer. Then I gave Anthoney the box of 36 live butterflies we had in a white box, and he had Rick stand up and help him release the butterflies in Auntie's honor. (She absolutely adored butterflies for the last several years of her life.) Rick hadn't known about this part beforehand, and the result was that it put a big grin on his face, saying, "Mom would LOVE these butterflies, just look at these, Mom!!"

Then we went to the church for a reception dinner. Auntie had previously said she did NOT want them to have a dinner reception, but they insisted. So we drove the hour to the new Gospel Tablernacle in Belton MO for the dinner - which was actually very sweet of them to do, and it offered another opportunity for people to share memories of this wonderful lady. Then we went home to Rick's house, and Florence and her niece joined us for some reminiscing and family bonding. Anthoney made sour apple martinis for everyone, and we sat up till 2 or 2:30 a.m. drinking them and talking about Auntie.

Oh one last thing, we printed out all the guestbook entries (click here for a link) and gave them to Rick this morning, and he was so appreciative of everyone's condolences.. also, Ariel emailed not one but two absolutely beautiful letters to him, so eloquent and full of love, Rick bawled as he read them aloud to us.

Everyone who has had the fortune to have Edith Marie Hern in their life misses her. She was so full of elegance and class, dignity and uprightness. She was a jewel, a precious jewel.