So long Aunt Enid.

On Saturday, November 6th, Friends and family gathered in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba to say farewell to Aunt Enid. I was there with the three Manitoba aunts, Dawn, Sonya and Dilly and Uncle Scott. It was a beautiful service, officiatied masterfully by her own son, our cousin, Scott Campbell, and at which all four of her sons spoke lovingly of their mother. Aunt Enid was pre-deceased by her only sibling, Betty, and several of Betty's children travelled north from Grand Forks, North Dakota (or the environs of GF) to attend the service. Cindy, Aunt Enid's niece and god-daughter, spoke fondly of her Aunt reffering specifically to an album of correspondeance that Aunt Enid has left behind - letters exchanged between the two sisters.

Following the service and the interment, I felt I knew Aunt Enid much better than when she was alive. Perhaps that is too often the case. From all accounts, she loved to cook, and to eat - that is what each of the speakers highlighted in their comments. Nancy (Scott's wife) told how her m-i-l shared some of her recipes so that Scott would not be too homesick in their first years of marriage. She too professed much love and admiration for Aunt Enid. The surprise of the day, however, was that in the end, she was diagnosed with ALS. The devastating effects of that illness are well-documented. She and Uncle Craig certainly had late-in-life curveballs thrown at them (Uncle Craig was diagnosed with amyloidosis at the end of his life, the same dreadful illness Campbell Wrighte had).

The beautiful white rose pictured below was taken (with not only permission, but encouragment) from the bouquet that adorned Aunt Enid's coffin. The rose captures the simple beauty that defined our aunt.