The Long Goodbye

 Did you know that koi have long-term memories and respond to their names? The spaniels of the aquatic world, it would appear.  I've always had a soft spot for koi, for the idea that if given time and space a gold fish could expand it's world view from being in a glass bowl, from being a prize at a school fete. 

Back when I did things like the PTA, I used to organise things: the local fete, a Christmas bazaar. I ran a mean bake list, who was in charge of what. I've organised book launches, wedding showers, hen/bachelorette nights, transport, travel. It's one of my life skills - organizing. Logistics. Planning. Execution by hook or crook. Sometimes, both, if I look back over my early days of petty shoplifting. The price I paid is never quite knowing where my own house keys were/are. I literally have locksmiths on retainer. 

Now, it would appear I am organising funerals. I mean, my dad's is close but not staring at me with both barrels. Grammy Lou? Well, she's always played things out her own way, to be sure. In addition to everything else, I've to updated my dad that his mother is dying. It isn't a surprise; she's ninety and although she would have rather died on her own than where she is, my therapist reminds me we often die on our own, when everyone leaves, in the quiet. In this case, as dawn broke over the Chickasawhay River.  She was a character, to be sure. 

Betty Louise Edmond (nee Howse) August 13, 1931-8 September 2021

'Betty Lou' as she was affectionately known to her family was born in Buckatunna, MS in 1931. She had a deep love for Wayne County and the Chicksawhay River.   She leaves behind  numerous grand-children and great- grandchildren, as well a loving extended family.

She loved playing the organ and piano and played occasionally at the nursing home where she resided. She was preceded in death by her father James Elmo Howse and mother Velma Grace Howse, and step mother Pansy Emmie Howse, also 3 loving brothers and 3 sisters, as well as two husbands: Daniel Young and Tom Edmond. 

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