What an Honor!

Today I had the honor of doing the eulogy for my Aunt Helen, I have to admit it was challenging to write a eulogy for a women I have only been around for a 1/3 of her life but I did it and from what everyone said it was great. I am going to post it below since not all of our family was able to travel and attend services.

Good Morning & Thank you to everyone for being here to celebrate the long and wonderful life of my Great Grand Aunt Helen.

Strong, humble, funny, elegant, a lady, magnificent, pioneer, survivor, coiffed, fashionable, stylish, cute, & chocoholic...these are a few of the words that come to people's minds when they think about Aunt Helen.

Aunt Helen was a women a head of her time, in a time when women did not work she had a career. After working for more than 25 years at Polaroid with Dr. Land it was time for her to enjoy retirement with the love of her life her husband Joe.

She and Joe were an amazing couple and had a beautiful love story. They traveled the country together, went on European cruises and I have continually heard that they were amazing entertainers and always hosting a party for one holiday or another.

Helen was a beautiful person and everything she touched seemed to take on the same beauty. She loved to cook, she loved to shop, she loved jewelry to give it and of course receive it & I personally think that QVC is going to miss her as much as we will.

Upon moving to the cape a new chapter in her life began. Aunt Helen took a painting class that ended up being a talent that she had and loved. She and Joe attended mass every morning and were founding members of the Corpis Christi Parish. It was moving to the cape that they also made new friends. Aunt Helen, a lover of family and friends she also considered many friends her family and always spoke kindly, warmly, and lovingly of the Scott and McCann families that she celebrated many many holidays with.

There are a few memories of Aunt Helen that I would like to share. I notice that over this past week when I asked my mother and my aunts to share their memories of Aunt Helen they all shared the same one "the bar". The bar was in the basement of Aunt Helen and Uncle Joe's home and it was set up exactly like a bar with glass, cherries, soda, nuts, and swizzle sticks. They each took turns playing the roles of customer, bar tender, and waitress and loved every minute and would play for hours. It was here at Aunt Helen's bar that they had their first sip of soda! Another memory that they all shared and that I have also always heard about was Aunt Helen's poodles, she treated her poodles as if they were here children and dresses them for holidays and celebrated their birthdays before it was the "in" things to do....again being a women before her time! My sisters and I share the found memories of having an actually tea party at Aunt Helen's, when we would visit we would be served tea in a tea cup with a saucer accompanied by cubes of sugar and always some type of chocolate sweet.

Take today to celebrate my Aunt Helen and her life! I know that if I live have the life she lived and I live up to be half the person she was then my life will be fantastic!!! And in the words of my sister Shannon, "Aunt Helen ROCKS!"