Little Miss Sunshine

It seems that over the past few years, I have attended too many funerals of people who have passed away far too young.  This week-end, we said our farewell to yet another person who had so much life left to live and so much joy to spread.  Debbie was not someone I saw very often, but when we ran into each other, she was always smiling and was always excited about something or other that was happening in her life.  Whether it was stopping in at my office to pick up yet another one of our fund-raising cook-books, or shopping for plants at a greenhouse, it seemed everything was a reason for Debbie to be happy and excited about.  There was something about Debbie that made you smile just thinking about her.  I became friends with her sister-in-law, Stacey, and because of that friendship, I had the opportunity to see Debbie a little more often.

Stacey and Debbie’s cousin, Mary, gave her eulogy and they verified what I had always thought of Debbie. I had assumed the Debbie I knew was the public one and that perhaps she was not that way all the time in private. However, in their loving tribute to her, Stacey and Mary shared happy and poignant stories of Debbie and spoke of her love of family and friends. She loved “sparkly” things and had many items that shone and sparkled in her home, things like indoor Christmas lights all year long, dozens of solar lights in her back yard and bright, colourful items throughout her house. This was a lady who went through life in pink sparkling runners – literally.  They were placed next to her urn, a testament to the energetic bubbly person Debbie had been. 

Debbie’s life and funeral has made me look at myself, perhaps because we were very similar in age and in the number of years we were married.  Because of that, I wonder how difficult it must have been for her those last months and weeks.  I have so much more I want to do, so many more places I want to visit and so much left to say. I’m not ready to go yet.  I suspect Debbie must have felt the same.  Still, she faced death through the months leading to it with her usual smile and enthusiasm for life.  I did not know Debbie as well as many others at her funeral did, yet I feel a tremendous loss at losing her.  I can only imagine how her family must feel. That was Debbie in a nutshell: she cast her magic wand on all who knew her and all who had the good fortune of meeting her and left a lasting impression of a sunshine smile. 

Her funeral card had a picture of her in a field of yellow flowers with her arms outstretched, wearing a straw sunhat.  The caption over the picture simply said “Little Miss Sunshine”.  Indeed she was, in all the things she surrounded herself with and within herself.  You will be missed, Debbie, and never forgotten.