How do you sum up a person in a few paragraphs? How do you colour in the shades of a personality in mere words? The task seems impossible, yet we still try. Eulogies describe the good qualities of a person, making saints out of the dead. But humans, even the saintly ones, aren’t saints. Humans are complicated and simplistic, changeable and intractable, stubborn and hopeful, skeptical and credulous, stingy and generous, emotional and stoic.
Susan Walker was all of these things. She was a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, a friend. She was a dreamer. She loved animals. She liked to play the organ and sing in the choir. She was a country girl, even though she spent most of her life in cities. She loved change for change’s sake. She loved her family and could see the faults in them clearly, while still loving them all the same.
Susan had many happy memories and many disappointments. She knew tragedy and heartbreak. She tried. She failed. She tried again. She knew the power of laughter to help her and others through tough times.
Our mother was not a perfect person, but she loved us and we loved her. She always made a point of keeping our father a real person to us, foibles and all. When she remembered him to us, she steered clear of making a saint of him. I think she would want us to remember her that way as well. As an imperfect human being, deserving of love all the same. And she has it.
