Friday, November 19, 2010

Sudie's Day

My Aunt Sudie was interred today in Waco, Texas.

It was a beautiful day, cool and the sun shined on Sudie. The service was dignified and filled with many tributes to this kind unselfish woman.

At 95 years old Sudie looked good.

She was an accomplished college professor and, after her obit was published in the Waco Herald Tribune, we have heard from many of her former students.  My brother-in-law Joe Brooks gave a heartfelt recap of Sudie's life and he had us nodding our heads in agreement many times.  He put in a few funny anecdotes too, calling Sudie 'monkey tail' in Portugese, her first language, as her older siblings would do in Brazil in the 1920s.

Sudie and I got along well.  I remember the first time I saw her.

She was very generous.   She bought Emily a new car, She paid for Joe's debate classes at Baylor, She arranged for Steph's first semester at college, she bought Jennifer an Apple computer when computers were not common possessions, she shopped at Neiman-Marcus and brought dresses for my girls season after season after season.  Paige wore a dress today bought by Sudie Pearl for Steph when Steph was 7.
She gave without fanfare and I'm sure there are lots of members of our family that were recipients of stuff I never heard about.  That's Sudie Pearl for you!

She gave me Reader's Digest every year for 20+ years and I didn't know how to tell her I didn't want it. I guess she figured it was a rightist leaning pub and that I would therefore like it.

Sudie loved to play Scrabble.  She was good.  But as she got into her 90s she eased off a little and would often tell me she knew of a Spanish word or a Portugese word that would fit. Purist me I always chastised her and didn't let her use them.  If I could play with her now, she can use any damn word she wants to.




I am particularly proud of my three daughters and my first granddaughter Anna who paid their respects today with music.

Here are two vids, one in church and the other at the gravesite.



5 comments:

Vetmommy said...

It was a wonderful service. You captured the spirit of it well. Thanks for also capturing the musical moments. I was pleased with how they turned out, and they don't occur very often.

Unknown said...

What a nice blog post Daddy. It was not easy to get up and try to sing for Sudie, and I could not have done it without my sisters standing beside me (and they sang the harder parts)

ps Dulce was monkey tail I think. And Sudie was something like ne ne

Anonymous said...

That was absolutely professional!!! I am so very proud of the Girls and how brave they were..I could not have done that,Eric. You have paid a lovely tribute to Sudie and I only knew her through tales told by you and Bev and the Girls..Rest in Peace,Sudie, with the Angels (as Emily said)

Norma and Noel.

Emily said...

Thanks, Daddy.

get2eric said...

I agree Norm, I could not keep composure in such circumstances. My daughters were , are, amazing.