1919-2014
The person who I get all my resiliency from, infact ANY good qualities in me...ALL of them are from her. Grandma I love you, now and forever.
This is what I said at the funeral. It was an honour.
This is it folks, Over the Top.
Hello, Thank You all for coming.
We are all here today to celebrate and Salute Eileen Smith - 'Grandma' to me. But how do you really sum up or even condense all that she managed to do in a very fruitful 95 years though? You Can't. She did and meant so much to so many people, its really an impossible task. She was the Rose Kennedy of the family, I was starting to think she would outlive all of us. She outlived 2 beloved husbands - Poppa and Don - Grandad. It really is the end of an era. She also outlived almost all of her old friends, but I want to make a special acknowledgment of 2 - Mrs Kerr and Kathleen McChesney who are both here today - Thank You for coming.
I think my very first memory of Grandma was walking along Orewa Beach when her and Granddad were briefly living in Waiwera. I must have been only 4 or 5 at the time. We were walking along the beach and somehow Grandma must have dropped the house keys in the sand, Granddad had gone out for a few hours and it was just her and I. She had bought me a bag of lollies and as we walked up and down the sand, searching everywhere for them she said "Oh well, maybe we'll have to have your lollies for lunch today!" Somehow we found them or another pair, and all was fine - my lollies didn't end up on the lunch menu that day.
I want to make special mention of her much loved son Richard who passed away in 2002 and of Terry Smith - her stepson who passed away in 2008. She adored both of them. Terry was wonderful to her and its great to have his wife Marilyn is here today.
I never got to meet Poppa - I only knew him through Grandma and Mum. During this period we spent so many good times with Grandma and Granddad. Visiting them every Saturday was a ritual and we would always REALLY look forward to school holidays. Both of them would spoil us rotten and Grandma would take us to the movies..she loved movies and it was one of her favourite past times. Even though I don't think some of her first choices would have always been Home Alone and Home Alone II! But these were some of the very best times for me growing up. I want to especially aknowledge Granddad here - he loved us as his own and doted on us and was very good to Grandma. A great memory was "Grandparents Day" at Royal Oak Primary. This is the day where your Grandparents come along and you get to show them off to everybody. I remember getting up and quite boldy introducing them as the "Greatest Grandparents in the whole world' and everyone gushed, and of course I
was right. The proof was in the pudding when my friend Scott having no Grandparents there was promptly invited by Grandma and Grandad to come out to lunch with us that day. Years later he told me how he'd saved up all his pocket money to go visit HIS Grandmother in Australia. When her beloved 'Aussie Rules' team "may" have been playing in a semi final at the same time he was supposed to be flying back to NZ he was bluntly told he would have to "find his own way out to the airport and fly out alone". I realised again, just how lucky we were to have Grandma....
Of course going with them to America was the trip of a lifetime. Both Grandma and Granddad had dreamed of visiting Disneyland for many years. And I think having some little kids there running amok and getting all excited about the rides was a plus. One of the more meaningful moments for Grandma I think was the "I Love Lucy" exhibition at Universal Studios. Grandma LOVED Lucille Ball. It was full of all sorts of Lucy memrobillia, clothes and other personal items. There was even a Lucille Ball impersonator who was a dead wringer for Lucy on hand who Grandma was very quick to get a photo with. The 2 Lucy's. Grandma also had her very own Lucy moment on that trip. The trip and relentless schedule was pretty taxing on al of us , but especially Grandma - and with jetlag etc she wasn't feeling up to going out one day she told us. So we were all loaded up on the bus ready to depart to San Diego or some other far away destination, and then all of a sudden out comes Grandma who had previously been layed up - all dressed up and off to do a days shopping!! It was a storyline straight out of an episode of "I Love Lucy" and I was fully expecting Dezi Arnaz to get up out of his seat or board the bus!
Then there was the time i went to see Bob Dylan for the very first time at the North Shore Events Centre when i was still at school. He was so good i wanted to go back again the 2nd night. Out of the question said Dad - we went last night and i'm not going again. So i phoned up Grandma "Grandma i want to go back to see Bob Dylan tonight, if i get a ticket and get the bus over can i stay with you tonight?" "Don't you think you should be happy just seeing him once, it probably wont be as good seeing him a 2nd time" "No I really want too Grandma" "OK then!" So i did. What i didn't tell Grandma was that it involved me missing 2 days of school and a school trip. Thanks Grandma.
I think rather than being sad, this should be a happy occasion where we celebrate her and her life and what she has given us. More than anything else, her love and her unbreakable faith in Jesus Christ got her through life and more than a few tough times. She was an incredible person. Despite all the deaths and losses in her life I think you'd struggle to find anyone happier or bubblier and with more of a zest for life even when she was well into her 90's. She'd made a cheerful teenager look depressed by comparison. She saw the good in everyone. Up until the last year or so she was still incredibly independent and remarkably sprightly. She never looked or acted "old". Her faith nurtured and sustained her and was something I found inspirational. She knew more than anyone that we are not these bodies, these shells that we only temporarilly inhabit that are often confused with our real selves. She knew a world far beyond anything that exists in this one and that our real identity is spirit/soul. William Penn Said it well when he said: "They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies.” She also knew that the only way to get to God, was to leave the body and earthly things behind. In Corinthians 15:50 it says "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable".
She was ready for a long time. Now she is free from birth, disease, old age and death, She is free from the prison of being trapped in a body and the shackles and constraints of the material world. She knew she was spirit and just here for a visit. She just visited us for a little bit longer than the usual cup of coffee and decided to stay for 95 years. C.S Lewis once said: "Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.”
Grandma herself wrote the following poem entitled "Complete in Him", where she said:
"In Him complete, the answer to all I need
Buried with him and risen too
Now ended, the struggle and strife
Peace now ruling within my heart
Gods grace and love, mine to impart
Gone the outermost, and the outer
Carnality gone, the spirit now dwells
By his power, to live out his plan"
That was kinda Grandma's Modus Operandi. She had an unwavering, unbreakable AND enviable faith. When she was tested, and tested she was, it did not break her, it just made her more resolute and her faith all the more stronger. There is still a thing or 2 even now she can teach us. There is a lovely drawing of Jesus she had which we put up in her room in the last few weeks, on it she had enscribed "My Best Friend Jesus" And he was. Now more than ever we can take comfort in her deep faith and the knowledge she is where she has always wanted to be - she has waited such a long time to get there. Grandma your home.
I want to read a poem Grandma wrote. She first got me to read this to her when she was living in Bayswaters Rd, Takapuna, and it has stuck with me ever since. It seems especially appropriate now. It's entitled "Widow" and Grandma im gonna read it for you once more...
WIDOW
Widow, sad poignant word
Hurting like a tiny wounded bird
Breaking the heart,
The life in two.
But just a moment friend,
Cross off the letter W at beginning and end
Leaving only I DO
I DO have sweet memories
Gently caressing my mind
I DO have the truth of God's promises
To Prove, to find
I DO know God cares for me,
Now and through eternity
I DO know Christ my Strength
Will see me through
At the end of the grief tunnel
I see light, hope in sight
I hear Jesus saying
Behold, I love you, I DO
Move over Sam Hunt...
I want to close now with something Grandma wrote here at Selwyn Village, 10 years ago now:
"So here i am! 85 years old in 2004, renting a cottage and looking forward soon to going to heaven and meeting Jesus. (this is 10 years ago) I love all my family. I admire them. I am proud of them. My family is my best achievement in life and "my crowning glory". Each one is so precious. I want them all to come to heaven one day. Only believe! Jesus died for each one of us, so we could have everlasting life!"
We all love you Grandma, Thank you for being in our lives and for being in them for so long.. You will always be with us, and us with you. It's a little unorthodox, but how about we all give this Lovely Lady a round of applause...
Take a bow Grandma...
OM Christ
