A Fine Woman

A woman can pack a lot of living into 90 years.

Ruth Kimball was 90 when she passed away on Friday. She was quite a woman. Ruth was a 4-H leader for many, many years, leading so many young people in so many good ways. I met her through her grandson and his wife (my neighbors) and her daughters. She was part of my Circle of Home and Family group, and I feel honored to have known her, however little. If the crowd at the funeral home tonight, the line around the room, across the hall, around two more rooms, out the door and down the sidewalk is any indication, I am not alone feeling that way.

I had only met 'Gram' a few times before she started greeting me with a hug. She was always more interested in what was going on with me or my children than in telling me how she was. She was the kind of person that would always go out of her way to help people, the kind of person you could always ask for advice, the kind of person who would put together a quilt whenever one was needed. Dependable, responsible, funny, considerate. That was Ruth. Just plain good Yankee stock, I'd say. And a heck of a good cook to boot.

A woman from our Circle of Home and Family group called to ask me to make some sandwiches for the luncheon after the funeral tomorrow, which I did after I got home from the wake tonight. My husband hates the smell of tuna, and I can't say that it was really what I felt like doing after I got home. But it seemed such a small and easy thing to do, the kind of thing that Ruth would have done without anyone even asking her. I'm grateful to live in the kind of community where they still do this kind of thing, the phone calls to gather the food and so forth.

When someone dies at age 90, it is easy to say that they had a full life and it is sad, but what can you expect. But it is also true that the more years you have with someone the more memories you have stored up, the more you will notice their absence. I hope for her family and friends that all those memories will be good ones, that the difficulties of the last couple of months will fade in their memories quickly, and that Ruth's legacy will live on for many years to come. I am glad I had the chance to know her.