Life in the Garden

Matters of Life and Death

ashes scattering

Goodbye Nelda Pt. 2

vintage postcard
Funeral Report from PA:

The flowers were beautiful and the service was very nice..Nelda had asked the minister to do the service when Pauline’s mother died , she had picked the Legion and the caterer so most of it was done….there were 75 or more there and they stayed for the lunch and for about 3 hours after.. I have discovered an upside to cremation …you can bring the person home with you and that seems to make it easier somehow…Matt (Nelda’s grandson) gave a short eulogy and there was not a dry eye in the house as they say…he turned out to be the perfect choice…Nelda would have been so proud of the turnout….she always worried that she had no friends…..love to all in MO…..d

To my knowledge, Nelda is the first member of our family to be cremated. And for sure the first one to reside in the home AFTER the funeral. The plan is to scatter her ashes at a later date.

Pardon My Dust

dorthy parker

Over the holiday weekend we caught an old favorite, “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle” with Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dorthy Parker, and was reminded of the author’s tragic ending.

Four suicide attempts, no heirs, her will was simple: she left her literary estate to Dr. Martin Luther King. Parker was cremated and her ashes sat on a shelf at the crematory for six years.

A year after Dorthy’s death, Dr. King was assassinated and the Parker estate rolled over to the NAACP. Meanwhile, her ashes had been mailed to her attorney’s office where the box resided in a filing cabinet for 15 years.

In 1988, someone figured out that Mrs. Parker’s ashes were unclaimed, New York tabloids ran stories and readers sent in letters about what should be done with the dust. The NAACP stepped in and took the box and dedicated a memorial garden at the national headquarters in Baltimore, and finally interred the ashes there.

dorthy parker memorial

source: dorthyparker.com