Blessed like Edith

I wrote her obituary today. I had help. I had her help first. I listened to her talk to me, through recordings on my phone, sharing her story of the memories and details she wanted to include. Then, I had a coworker (a writer, and a friend) Lydia help polish it. I then sent it along for reviewing and editing by Aunt Annabel and both of my parents. It’s almost ready. It needs the last bit of COVID-specific detail: how to watch the livestream of the memorial service.

This evening, I started trying to put together a webpage for what will be edithreed.com. My eyes are stinging. Thus, I’m stopping in a moment to go to bed (it’s 11:08 PM).

As I was searching through my filing cabinet, I pulled out past Christmas letters from Grandma. I wanted to take her signature and make it into an image file for the website. It’s rough (below), but it’s a start. At the back of the folder was a yellowed paper with the words of my baby blessing. I pulled it out. My father gave it to me on December 8th, 1980. I wasn’t quite two months old yet. Here is part of a paragraph that talks specifically about Grandma DeeDee:

We bless her that she might observe and take note from her grandmother, Edith Reed, the ability to be an unremitting perfectionist, the capability to develop the taste for fine and beautiful things; the capability and the talent to become educated. We bless her to recall that becoming well trained and educated is something for which Thou art pleased and something which we would encourage. Bless her that she might observe the way that Grandmother Reed has continued to raise her family and that she might so set examples in her life.