Bee Loomer Memorial

Below is a report by Mary Lou Mittel on the memorial service for Bee Loomer yesterday:

I have to tell you that there are times when I love the people who live here. I have told you how many people were gone from the park. I was amazed at the number of people who came to the memorial.

Bee's family all returned and we were like family because we had celebrated her birthday together, earlier this year. Instead of a guest book the girls had made a special page for us to sign and note which will be added to her final scrapbook..lovely. Bee's son in law and family flew in from CA and is a wonderful speaker, retired Baptist minister. He told how his father loved Bee and that they had been married 13 years , 5 of which he had dementia. He told of his father's despair when he was driven to the "county home" where his father before him had died with dementia. Wouldn't you know that that was one of the few "clear" days he had in several years.

He spoke of Bee with such love and admiration..wonderful.Bee's grand daughter spoke for the family and this darling witty girl cried with the rest of us. The family displayed Bees carved birds and made booklets with a humming bird on the front, her favorite. 2 of her quilts were on display ..beautiful. When we were asked to share our stories of Bee, I told them of a day when we had gone thrift shopping and how we had gone to the discard piles and Bee found the biggest pair of dark blue jeans I have ever seen. They were enormous, had to fit someone 4 or 5 hundred pounds. I was shocked and asked what she was going to do with them. She flashed a big smile and held them up and said "aren't they beautiful?" She was already seeing the dark denim as part of a quilt for a boy. 5 others shared and her kids loved it. Later I told them that last year Bee took me to church and Brunch for my B-day. She made a mistake about the starting time but we went in anyhow and sat in the back. Neither of us are really fond of the new Praise Songs so we were happy to arrive in time for the sermon. The Brunch was great.

The music today was performed by a man from Ballast Point Baptist. He played the piano while people were gathering and later sang a medley of old favorite hymns...glorious!
MLM